According to the Internet, Cannabis is the most abused drug in Poland, so smoking a couple doobies?
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
- Start date
Well, at least checking the Mod Nexus page the most popular mods seem to be updating already: There's 25 mods today alone, and all except one are next-gen updates to existing mods.
So, stuff I'm playing, my opinionz, and the everlasting quest to "git gud." (whether it git gudder enough is something I'll leave to Gud and His judgement on gits):
APEX LEGENDS
OVERWATCH 2
SONIC RUNNERS
SONIC FRONTIERS
APEX LEGENDS
So, I've been playing this for a month, and I certainly git gudder - better sense of how to play, what works, what doesn't, etc. I don't know if I'll keep playing at this point. That's not to say it's bad, I've won a few matches, come close as well (fun fact - I came no. 2 after my squaddies bugged out by just hiding through the rest of the match), but the flipside is that a match can only last a few seconds if things go awry, which means I have to wait minutes more to get back in. Also, while I git gudder, I'm still not very good at these kind of shooting games.
OVERWATCH 2
Played some more of this, lost a lot - Ramattra looks interesting, but the season pass system is still terrible. In short, great gameplay, terrible monetization.
SONIC RUNNERS
So, funny story behind me downloading this that I'll spare you, but I've beaten the game, in that I've completed every level, even if I haven't got every star (as in, fulfilling certain conditions on every stage). Despite being a mobile game...okay, I'll be frank, I actually really enjoyed this. Reasons including:
-Pay $5 AUD, get everything in the game (you still need to unlock stuff, but there's one downpayment rather than microtransactions)
-The music is gorgeous (seriously, this might actually be one of the best OSTs in any Sonic game)
-The gameplay, while simple, is actually quite fun. You have a choice of three character types (speed, power, flight...yes, it's taking after Sonic Heroes) spread across nine characters (Team Hero, Team Dark, Team Chaotix...I guess Team Rose wasn't available). Character's always running at a set velocity, and your options are to jump, and after jumping, jumping again, gliding, or flying. So, on one hand, gameplay is very simple, with one finger for said jumping, the other to use special items (e.g. invincibility). On the other, it's actually insanely fun to play. Great sense of momentum, of bounce physics, etc. Like any good Sonic game, there's great incentive to replay the levels to "git gudder." I doubt many of you will be swayed by this, which is fine, but playing it, I actually found myself being taken back to the classic 2D games, from the environment, to the music, to even the gameplay itself, even if it's a simplified version.
-Only real downside is that the story is absolute bollocks. Not that I'm expecting much story from this kind of mobile game, but I'll spoil things (if you care, why?), and say the plot is "Eggman is capturing animals, Sonic and friends have to stop him, Eggman's revealed to be working on a mind control ray to enslave the whole planet, Eggman is stopped, the end"). Like, it's technically got more plot (certainly more dialogue) than the early 2D games, but really, you could remove any plot here and lose nothing. Heck, it might actually improve it by removing ludo-narrative dissonance (since the levels all function the same, what the characters are doing often doesn't line up with what the plot says they're doing).
So, yeah. Fun time. Can't rank it too high (see below), but, yeah. I'm still sometimes taking my phone out for a quick session to get every gold star. And I did it all without a plumber being around!
-Pay $5 AUD, get everything in the game (you still need to unlock stuff, but there's one downpayment rather than microtransactions)
-The music is gorgeous (seriously, this might actually be one of the best OSTs in any Sonic game)
-The gameplay, while simple, is actually quite fun. You have a choice of three character types (speed, power, flight...yes, it's taking after Sonic Heroes) spread across nine characters (Team Hero, Team Dark, Team Chaotix...I guess Team Rose wasn't available). Character's always running at a set velocity, and your options are to jump, and after jumping, jumping again, gliding, or flying. So, on one hand, gameplay is very simple, with one finger for said jumping, the other to use special items (e.g. invincibility). On the other, it's actually insanely fun to play. Great sense of momentum, of bounce physics, etc. Like any good Sonic game, there's great incentive to replay the levels to "git gudder." I doubt many of you will be swayed by this, which is fine, but playing it, I actually found myself being taken back to the classic 2D games, from the environment, to the music, to even the gameplay itself, even if it's a simplified version.
-Only real downside is that the story is absolute bollocks. Not that I'm expecting much story from this kind of mobile game, but I'll spoil things (if you care, why?), and say the plot is "Eggman is capturing animals, Sonic and friends have to stop him, Eggman's revealed to be working on a mind control ray to enslave the whole planet, Eggman is stopped, the end"). Like, it's technically got more plot (certainly more dialogue) than the early 2D games, but really, you could remove any plot here and lose nothing. Heck, it might actually improve it by removing ludo-narrative dissonance (since the levels all function the same, what the characters are doing often doesn't line up with what the plot says they're doing).
So, yeah. Fun time. Can't rank it too high (see below), but, yeah. I'm still sometimes taking my phone out for a quick session to get every gold star. And I did it all without a plumber being around!
SONIC FRONTIERS
Still playing this. I left detailed thoughts awhile back, so won't go too in-depth here, but I'm up to the third island, so here's some general stuff:
-I still hate the Cyber Space stages. Some of them are actually pretty decent, but "some" is the key word. I've just played two that were taken out of Sonic Unleashed, except they're worse in every regard. I'm actually going to revise my statement and say that they might not be worse than Sonic Forces, in that the good ones are better at providing alternate routes, and the ranking system is better, but in terms of actual FUN? Yeah, Forces might still be better.
-The open-zone areas are more fun. There's a fair bit of jank at times, but you can also use the jank to get around if you know what you're doing. And the combat's still fun. On the other hand, if you're asking me how well Sonic controls in 3D, I've gotta say that SA1 still holds the top spot after all these years.
-On story stuff...I'm going to try and minimize spoilers here, but anyone who knows me knows that I'm more interested in analyzing story than gameplay (and the same goes for wikis), so on that note, having reached the third island, I'll say at this point that while I don't think Frontiers is the best Sonic story ever written, I think it might be the most mature, rivalled only by a handful of entries. And thankfully, it's a sound type of maturity, not the false, "edgy" maturity that entries like Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Forces tried to pull off. It doesn't always stick the landing, but here's general thoughts on the matter:
a) If I had to sum up the core theme/motif of Frontiers in one word, it would be "death." A lot of you might scoff at reading that, but I'm serious. Death, legacy, melencholia, all of these things are practically omniprescent everywhere in the game. There's a kind of inherent sadness to the entire game - again, I won't divulge why that is - but based on everything that's been seen and revealed so far, Frontiers is a game where the weight of its environment and its history is constantly bearing down on you. Cheesy as this sounds, when it starts gently raining, coupled with the ambient music...yeah. I'm sure you can point to any number of games where this is also true, but in this specific context, it works.
b) By extension of point a, there's the environmental storytelling. I touched on this last time, and having reached Island 3, this holds true. Island 1 (Kronos) is relatively verdant, even if you're dealing with ruins (and there's the "tombstone reveal" I mentioned last time). Island 2 (Ares) is desert, bar a single oasis. Considering that you shouldn't expect islands this close to have different biomes, yet you know what happened here long ago, you can probably suss out why Ares and Kronos are so different. Then, island 3 (Chaos), you have a barren landscape - not desert, as in, completely barren - magma instead of water, for instance, far more military equipment, etc. Compared with what we see, it's kind of stark how well the names alone fit - Kronos (god of the harvest, verdant), Ares (god of war, more damaged, signs of war machines, more advanced enemies), and Chaos (in-universe "God of Destruction," island has been completely devastated).
This is going to sound silly, but there's one environmental piece that really got to me here, and that's a destroyed Death Egg robot - the mass produced type seen in Sonic Forces. Over there, those things were hyped up as being unstoppable, and while you did see ruined robots in the background, there was little actual impact. Here, you can climb the thing, and it's striking how one of Eggman's war machines just...fits the environment - one weapon of war, amongst numerous weapons of war, on an island that's been scorced free of all life (which we see in a flashback as well). I'm almost certainly reading too much into this, but hey, feelings are feelings.
c) I'm returning to point a by doing point c (work it out, scrubs), but there's the storytelling/character elements as well. It doesn't hit all the time, there's a few cheesy lines, and the pacing doesn't always work (because many conversations are optional, these can jank with the flow of the main story, which is actually pretty threadbare), but most of the time, it does. I've already commented on Amy's themes on Island 1, Knuckles here...he's handled well, but again, the theme of death, loss, regret, etc. weighs down on the characters themselves, and by extension, the koco. I won't spoil what the koco really are (though you can work it out long before the actual reveal happens if you're paying attention), but basically, their actions and desires act as mirrors to the characters so far. For Amy, love, for Knuckles, loss. The game arguably even recontextualizes Tikal from SA1 - I won't give the line since it's a potential spoiler, but basically, based on my reading, there's the implication that she was able to endure as a spirit for so long because of grief, and by extension, the idea that Sonic and co. helped her find peace to the extent that she was able to move on. Again, might be reading far too much into this, but the events from past games are dropped ad nauseum (Flynn knows his stuff), so it wouldn't really surprise me.
So, yeah. I don't know if I can call Frontiers a "great" story, and arguably, I'm more positive to it than it might deserve from the fact that for the past 10 years plus, Sonic games have either not given a damn about story (starting from Colours), or in the case of Forces, failed spectacuarly. But even then, it's actually kind of startling that this game is able to convey the emotions and themes it does, and not feel hackneyed in the process, said series having started with the premise of "evil doctor is kidnapping animals, hit him eight times to save the day." If you want to know why I still keep coming back to this IP after it giving me countless reasons to just move on, Frontiers is part of the reason why.
Or, if you want the TL, DR version, Cyber Space sucks, open-world is pretty fun, story is pretty neat.
-I still hate the Cyber Space stages. Some of them are actually pretty decent, but "some" is the key word. I've just played two that were taken out of Sonic Unleashed, except they're worse in every regard. I'm actually going to revise my statement and say that they might not be worse than Sonic Forces, in that the good ones are better at providing alternate routes, and the ranking system is better, but in terms of actual FUN? Yeah, Forces might still be better.
-The open-zone areas are more fun. There's a fair bit of jank at times, but you can also use the jank to get around if you know what you're doing. And the combat's still fun. On the other hand, if you're asking me how well Sonic controls in 3D, I've gotta say that SA1 still holds the top spot after all these years.
-On story stuff...I'm going to try and minimize spoilers here, but anyone who knows me knows that I'm more interested in analyzing story than gameplay (and the same goes for wikis), so on that note, having reached the third island, I'll say at this point that while I don't think Frontiers is the best Sonic story ever written, I think it might be the most mature, rivalled only by a handful of entries. And thankfully, it's a sound type of maturity, not the false, "edgy" maturity that entries like Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Forces tried to pull off. It doesn't always stick the landing, but here's general thoughts on the matter:
a) If I had to sum up the core theme/motif of Frontiers in one word, it would be "death." A lot of you might scoff at reading that, but I'm serious. Death, legacy, melencholia, all of these things are practically omniprescent everywhere in the game. There's a kind of inherent sadness to the entire game - again, I won't divulge why that is - but based on everything that's been seen and revealed so far, Frontiers is a game where the weight of its environment and its history is constantly bearing down on you. Cheesy as this sounds, when it starts gently raining, coupled with the ambient music...yeah. I'm sure you can point to any number of games where this is also true, but in this specific context, it works.
b) By extension of point a, there's the environmental storytelling. I touched on this last time, and having reached Island 3, this holds true. Island 1 (Kronos) is relatively verdant, even if you're dealing with ruins (and there's the "tombstone reveal" I mentioned last time). Island 2 (Ares) is desert, bar a single oasis. Considering that you shouldn't expect islands this close to have different biomes, yet you know what happened here long ago, you can probably suss out why Ares and Kronos are so different. Then, island 3 (Chaos), you have a barren landscape - not desert, as in, completely barren - magma instead of water, for instance, far more military equipment, etc. Compared with what we see, it's kind of stark how well the names alone fit - Kronos (god of the harvest, verdant), Ares (god of war, more damaged, signs of war machines, more advanced enemies), and Chaos (in-universe "God of Destruction," island has been completely devastated).
This is going to sound silly, but there's one environmental piece that really got to me here, and that's a destroyed Death Egg robot - the mass produced type seen in Sonic Forces. Over there, those things were hyped up as being unstoppable, and while you did see ruined robots in the background, there was little actual impact. Here, you can climb the thing, and it's striking how one of Eggman's war machines just...fits the environment - one weapon of war, amongst numerous weapons of war, on an island that's been scorced free of all life (which we see in a flashback as well). I'm almost certainly reading too much into this, but hey, feelings are feelings.
c) I'm returning to point a by doing point c (work it out, scrubs), but there's the storytelling/character elements as well. It doesn't hit all the time, there's a few cheesy lines, and the pacing doesn't always work (because many conversations are optional, these can jank with the flow of the main story, which is actually pretty threadbare), but most of the time, it does. I've already commented on Amy's themes on Island 1, Knuckles here...he's handled well, but again, the theme of death, loss, regret, etc. weighs down on the characters themselves, and by extension, the koco. I won't spoil what the koco really are (though you can work it out long before the actual reveal happens if you're paying attention), but basically, their actions and desires act as mirrors to the characters so far. For Amy, love, for Knuckles, loss. The game arguably even recontextualizes Tikal from SA1 - I won't give the line since it's a potential spoiler, but basically, based on my reading, there's the implication that she was able to endure as a spirit for so long because of grief, and by extension, the idea that Sonic and co. helped her find peace to the extent that she was able to move on. Again, might be reading far too much into this, but the events from past games are dropped ad nauseum (Flynn knows his stuff), so it wouldn't really surprise me.
So, yeah. I don't know if I can call Frontiers a "great" story, and arguably, I'm more positive to it than it might deserve from the fact that for the past 10 years plus, Sonic games have either not given a damn about story (starting from Colours), or in the case of Forces, failed spectacuarly. But even then, it's actually kind of startling that this game is able to convey the emotions and themes it does, and not feel hackneyed in the process, said series having started with the premise of "evil doctor is kidnapping animals, hit him eight times to save the day." If you want to know why I still keep coming back to this IP after it giving me countless reasons to just move on, Frontiers is part of the reason why.
Or, if you want the TL, DR version, Cyber Space sucks, open-world is pretty fun, story is pretty neat.
Yeah, Cyberspace stages I am feeling fatigue too. They needed more variety of stages, and bit more polish. The saving grace is a lot of them are short. I know people complained about Forces, being too easy or too short, but the stages are still fun. Generations still have the better level and stage design of course.
I am currently on Chaos Island, and you are definitely further than me. The story I have 0 complaints so far. This taking me back to the SA1 and SA2 days! The tone is fine, Yahtzee, naysayers, and anti-Modern Sonic/jaded Sega fans. Similar to you @Hawki, except I never left. I pick and choose my games, but at the end of the day, I still care for the Blue Blur and the cast. People and fans of all ages care and want to see him succeed, and have him seen Sonic succeed. Sonic is many things now, and there is nothing wrong with that. The people who don't understand "what Sonic is" either never cared, nor never took time to understand about the character, mythos, and franchise to begin with, only hate on it because doing so is "popular", or jack asses with nothing better do with their lives. They mean nothing to me, and I happy to see Sonic in a great place again. 2022 has been great year for the Sonic franchise.
So of course I had to check out The Witcher 3 next gen update on my PS5. I promised myself I would wait at least until I come back from New Zealand, and even better when I have a huge block of time to dedicate to a full replay, but I couldn't wait.
I think PS5 and fancy PC offer the best experiences based on the list of features. PS5 version has haptic feedback stuff. I did not choose PS5 over XBox for haptics, it's because I like Sony games, but it's cool to have it. It's not the game changer some make it out to be but it's nice. Feeling the slight rumbly changes with casting signs and being warned of monsters is a nice addition. PC is probably great because there are more options for graphics. Of course the major point is the graphics update so of course if you got Series X you'll enjoy that, too.
Having played this game so much I do notice the smoother framerate and higher textures on faces and weapons and foliage. The "performance" option is default which keeps it at 60fps. I briefly tried the raytracing mode and I did noticed the choppiness more than the extra lighting whatever, so I can't imagine going back to it. I don't have the best eye for this stuff but if I noticed the difference, anyone will. I think the raytracing mode is only good to use the new camera mode but I never do that so it's not for me.
I am getting used to the new mechanic to access signs quicker. If you played the game you know that in combat if you want to cast a magic sign or throw a bomb you gotta press right bumper, which brings up a wheel while everything slows down a lot, and you select it before being able to use it with right trigger.
Now there is an option (which is not set by default!) where you can hold down left trigger then press one of the 4 face buttons or left bumper to cast one of the 5 signs. The benefit is you don't have a stupid wheel, the drawback is now you gotta remember which button is which sign! So as you can imagine I spend my time in White Orchard casting the wrong sign at everything, it was funny. Especially where you can cast Igni to burn and loot honeycombs for good or selling, instead I cast Aard which aggravates the bees and they chase me, lol.
But I'll get the hang of it (then leave the country for a month then come back and forget everything). The trick is where bombs come in, since it's the same wheel but different buttons... we'll see how it goes.
The other things is new camera angles and I set it so that I get the God of War 2018 closer one for walking and riding around but I can't imagine doing that for combat where the greatest threat is some stupid wolf coming out from where you can't see. My biggest complaint of modern action games is how far away and zippy camera angle is and that I can't see who's murdering me, why would I wanna do that to poor Geralt?
I haven't gotten to the new quest and Netflix stuff, but that's just... whatever, I don't really care, not like this game needs MORE content.
This update is all about that 60fps AFAIK.
I think PS5 and fancy PC offer the best experiences based on the list of features. PS5 version has haptic feedback stuff. I did not choose PS5 over XBox for haptics, it's because I like Sony games, but it's cool to have it. It's not the game changer some make it out to be but it's nice. Feeling the slight rumbly changes with casting signs and being warned of monsters is a nice addition. PC is probably great because there are more options for graphics. Of course the major point is the graphics update so of course if you got Series X you'll enjoy that, too.
Having played this game so much I do notice the smoother framerate and higher textures on faces and weapons and foliage. The "performance" option is default which keeps it at 60fps. I briefly tried the raytracing mode and I did noticed the choppiness more than the extra lighting whatever, so I can't imagine going back to it. I don't have the best eye for this stuff but if I noticed the difference, anyone will. I think the raytracing mode is only good to use the new camera mode but I never do that so it's not for me.
I am getting used to the new mechanic to access signs quicker. If you played the game you know that in combat if you want to cast a magic sign or throw a bomb you gotta press right bumper, which brings up a wheel while everything slows down a lot, and you select it before being able to use it with right trigger.
Now there is an option (which is not set by default!) where you can hold down left trigger then press one of the 4 face buttons or left bumper to cast one of the 5 signs. The benefit is you don't have a stupid wheel, the drawback is now you gotta remember which button is which sign! So as you can imagine I spend my time in White Orchard casting the wrong sign at everything, it was funny. Especially where you can cast Igni to burn and loot honeycombs for good or selling, instead I cast Aard which aggravates the bees and they chase me, lol.
But I'll get the hang of it (then leave the country for a month then come back and forget everything). The trick is where bombs come in, since it's the same wheel but different buttons... we'll see how it goes.
The other things is new camera angles and I set it so that I get the God of War 2018 closer one for walking and riding around but I can't imagine doing that for combat where the greatest threat is some stupid wolf coming out from where you can't see. My biggest complaint of modern action games is how far away and zippy camera angle is and that I can't see who's murdering me, why would I wanna do that to poor Geralt?
I haven't gotten to the new quest and Netflix stuff, but that's just... whatever, I don't really care, not like this game needs MORE content.
This update is all about that 60fps AFAIK.
Finished Doom Eternal's main campaign and started Ancient Gods. Man, this DLC does not. fuck. around. Which I do appreciate, it's really putting those twitch reflexes to the test. But it is bordering on overkill sometimes. I've only encountered the Spectre twice, but I can already feel it being a pain in the ass. Apparently these DLCs weren't nearly as well received as the main game, but I feel I've yet to hit that part.
I bought Hades for the third time (previously Switch and Epic) during the Steam Game Awards sale because I wanted to play it on my Steam Deck, which is exactly what I have been doing this past week.
Man, I really love Hades. Its just such a cozy game for me, and I love how runs can be completed in about 30 minutes, and the game's controls have basically been burned into my muscle memory at this point. Its a great one for pick-up-and-play, especially on the Steam Deck.
Honestly, the only big criticism that I have, is that I wish the game had more environments. The same 4 zones, with the same 4 bosses, repeated in perpetuity (with some slight variations) really does start to wear thin about half way through. Definitely could have done with some more variation in that regard, especially as you need to complete 10 runs before the credits roll.
Otherwise, back to Borderlands 2.
Man, I really love Hades. Its just such a cozy game for me, and I love how runs can be completed in about 30 minutes, and the game's controls have basically been burned into my muscle memory at this point. Its a great one for pick-up-and-play, especially on the Steam Deck.
Honestly, the only big criticism that I have, is that I wish the game had more environments. The same 4 zones, with the same 4 bosses, repeated in perpetuity (with some slight variations) really does start to wear thin about half way through. Definitely could have done with some more variation in that regard, especially as you need to complete 10 runs before the credits roll.
Otherwise, back to Borderlands 2.
- Apr 1, 2009
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The DLC was really cool, but some of the new stuff they added is... annoying. Like, I like that they added reasons to use some of the lesser used secondaries, but its emphisized a little bit too much since some of the new enemies require using them.
I beat Monster Hunter Stories 2. That plot was better then it had any right to be since monster hunter plots tend to be at best just a reason to go hunting and at worse actively annoying and cringe. The story in Stories 2 is still kinda cringe with how much they say "monstie" but turning it to Japanese fixes that and the rest of it is pretty good, not great, but something I wanted to see too through the end. Plus getting to have most of the iconic monsters as pals who have the movesets from the game and are much more animated then pokemon is really really nice. Plus each monstie has a big ultimate attack that is different, with the exception of recolors... usually.
Started playing Moss 2 and Gato Roboto. Still early on in Moss 2 but so far its more of the first one, which is fine since the first one is fantastic, of the new stuff I have encountered, it does seem like the game wants the player to be able to interact more, I've unlocked an ability that lets me grow things for Quill to climb and bridges. I can't grow them everywhere, just in preset spots, but it is a nice additional amount of interaction.
Gato Roboto is a neat little 2 bit metroidvania. Ton of charm playing a cat in a robot suit. I get the feeling its not very long and like it wants me to beat the game as fast as possible, but its very cute so we shall see.
Well, I managed to unexpectedly pick up Wanderer in Genshin Impact, so I'm gonna be building him whenever I'm not grinding out more (OS) Runescape levels. I'm surprising myself with my ability to commit to several-hour grinds, which I know is nothing on the several-day grinds that people do to get through the 90s of each stat, but it's more than I usually did back when I was playing in 2007 or last year. Finished the Fishing Trawler grind in about two sessions, despite coming in over the drop rate (1/12 x4 took me 62 runs).
Anyway, I'm about to start cat-sitting for a family friend and I won't have much access to my PC, so OSRS and Genshin on my phone are going to be what I'll be playing for the next... about a month while I'm not posting here.
Anyway, I'm about to start cat-sitting for a family friend and I won't have much access to my PC, so OSRS and Genshin on my phone are going to be what I'll be playing for the next... about a month while I'm not posting here.
Finished part 1 of Ancient Gods and started part 2. Yeah, this DLC feels decidedly less polished than the main game. Most it seems to be able to do is throw more gimmicks into the game: oh, this enemy can be defeated with only this mod that convenienly almost nobody ever uses. Oh, now you'll be using the meathook for platforming. Part 1 had a bad habit of having you fight in tight, cramped areas, and the addition of the Sentinel armor feels like an admission of failure. "Yeah, we made this part unfair shit, so here's a freebie to get you through it." This was particularly aggravating in the part 1 fight where you have to fight the 2 floating boxes. The game expects you to keep an eye on 4 moving target pretty much simultaneously, and simply doesn't provide the adequate tools for it. Still, the final boss was alright.
Part 2 from what I've played of it feels pretty mediocre. The arenas are much, much larger, but there's pretty little use of verticality, and there's so much space to move around that it's distinctly easier than part 1 so far.
Part 2 from what I've played of it feels pretty mediocre. The arenas are much, much larger, but there's pretty little use of verticality, and there's so much space to move around that it's distinctly easier than part 1 so far.
I hope I’m not the only one who used Atreus’s bow on the squirrel’s chime. LMAO. Anyways, really liked the characterization involving Thor and his daughter after the pub fight.. Like, just the dejected look on his face and is spot-on as she’s grilling him when he’s at a very low point, and all he can basically do is take it and own up to it. Really not looking forward to having to fight him again.
Heimdall deserves no sympathy though, and Kratos should not feel any guilt about what he did. Like Broc said, he had it comin’. Even that particular trophy name makes no qualms about it.
Heimdall deserves no sympathy though, and Kratos should not feel any guilt about what he did. Like Broc said, he had it comin’. Even that particular trophy name makes no qualms about it.
I started playing Darksiders 1 on the Steam Deck, and whilst the game runs like a dream (Max settings, 60FPS) there is a curious little quirk, where the game doesn't play any of the cutscenes. It just freezes for a moment, then skips the cutscenes.
It took me about 30 minutes to realise.
So the game just starts with me, on a burning street, surrounded by demons. "Wow, that was abrupt", I said to myself.
Will probably be one to play on my PC/Stream from my PC.
It took me about 30 minutes to realise.
So the game just starts with me, on a burning street, surrounded by demons. "Wow, that was abrupt", I said to myself.
Will probably be one to play on my PC/Stream from my PC.
Got to the final boss of Ancient Gods and wow, what a retarded joke of a fight. Remember how I said the Marauder is a glorified quicktime event? Well for some reason idsoft decided to do that for the very final boss of their game, except failure means the boss heals itself! Let's establish a rule here now: just don't make bosses heal themselves. Just don't. It makes the already entirely reactive fight drag on forever and thus insanely fucking boring. The DLC overall was kind of mediocre but still enjoyable, but this absolute shit-splat of a final boss retroactively makes the entire thing worse. Who the hell (heh) thought this was a good idea? I decided not to finish it, and just watched the final cutscenes on Youtube.
Overall grade for the DLC is a 4/10, and I feel that's being generous considering they took about 6 hours to clear total on Nightmare difficulty. 20 € for each DLC is a straight up fucking insult. Good thing I paid less than that for the entire deluxe bundle while it was on sale. So yeah, the Doom Eternal DLC was weakly received in comparison to the main game for a reason.
Overall grade for the DLC is a 4/10, and I feel that's being generous considering they took about 6 hours to clear total on Nightmare difficulty. 20 € for each DLC is a straight up fucking insult. Good thing I paid less than that for the entire deluxe bundle while it was on sale. So yeah, the Doom Eternal DLC was weakly received in comparison to the main game for a reason.
I went to over my brother's and tried out his PS5. I brought over Crysis Trilogy, and my GOD the HDR is so good! I mainly did 4 missions in Crysis 2, and played Wipeout Omega.
Update on Chained Echoes. I'm about 30 hours in, got access to the mechs and the airship and can go around the map and roam and do sidequests while also doing story events so I feel it's a good time to check in.
So, couple of big things right off. The game knows the tropes and does a marvelous job to subvert expectations. A lot of indie games mimic or pay homage to memorable events in other rpgs that folks love, and this game uses this knowledge to trick you into a sense of calmness and nostalgia only to pull the rug under your feet. But only some of the time. Some times you really do find (not)Aang frozen on top of a mountain, or fight an enemy named Giga Drill Breaker, or see your mech color pallet named Adam and have a purple-green motif that some very cultured anime fans will instantly recognize. So there's this interplay between being in your comfort zone and being thrown for a loop that is a ton of fun on top of the core fun.
And of course, the core fun is that the game is just really epic. You see really dark and dire war effects and people suffering left and right. You can't help but wanna keep going to prevent even more harm from befalling everyone around you. There's also been a couple of very nasty twists so far, one of which involved my second fav char, and man, I really didn't see it coming.
Also to revisit the mechs, they function as a second game basically. They have their own rules for combat, involving turning their gears up and down to balance out durability and damage, and you can have any char pilot any type of mech. They also have two kinds of weapons, a melle one and a ranged one, and there's 4 of each so you can mix and match em however you want. They also allow you to fly around on the field maps and reach treasures, and to fight giant enemies that you saw around before but couldn't put a dent in, but they're too huge to enter dungeons and most buildings so it's not like you can curbstomp everything with them, you still have to mostly fight on foot. They are very nicely detailed too. You can change the model of mech you have which affects its stats but it also affects the visuals of the mech and even of its weapon in some cases. I bough this beastman-like mech suit which changes the greatsword from a pretty standard looking thing into a wide jagged ivory looking blade with thorns protruding out of the blade's sides. Kinda primitive looking and very savage.
About 5 hours ago or so I also got access to a base of operations, which opened, of all things, a Suikoden-esque ally recruiting mode of the game out of nowhere. You have to roam around and find people from all walks of life to come to your base and fill it out so you can have a successful war effort conducted out of it. This is one of those things which the game plays straight and doesn't try to be clever with it, cause Suikoden is just that good so you don't wanna mess with that formula. You can also recruit full party members this way too, I got this goat guy who is like the blue mage archetype mixed with Poppeye, he eats monsters by turning them into canned food and then eating them, then learns some sort of special move based on which monster it was. Also his weapon of choice is an anchor. Truly the goat.
So, couple of big things right off. The game knows the tropes and does a marvelous job to subvert expectations. A lot of indie games mimic or pay homage to memorable events in other rpgs that folks love, and this game uses this knowledge to trick you into a sense of calmness and nostalgia only to pull the rug under your feet. But only some of the time. Some times you really do find (not)Aang frozen on top of a mountain, or fight an enemy named Giga Drill Breaker, or see your mech color pallet named Adam and have a purple-green motif that some very cultured anime fans will instantly recognize. So there's this interplay between being in your comfort zone and being thrown for a loop that is a ton of fun on top of the core fun.
And of course, the core fun is that the game is just really epic. You see really dark and dire war effects and people suffering left and right. You can't help but wanna keep going to prevent even more harm from befalling everyone around you. There's also been a couple of very nasty twists so far, one of which involved my second fav char, and man, I really didn't see it coming.
Also to revisit the mechs, they function as a second game basically. They have their own rules for combat, involving turning their gears up and down to balance out durability and damage, and you can have any char pilot any type of mech. They also have two kinds of weapons, a melle one and a ranged one, and there's 4 of each so you can mix and match em however you want. They also allow you to fly around on the field maps and reach treasures, and to fight giant enemies that you saw around before but couldn't put a dent in, but they're too huge to enter dungeons and most buildings so it's not like you can curbstomp everything with them, you still have to mostly fight on foot. They are very nicely detailed too. You can change the model of mech you have which affects its stats but it also affects the visuals of the mech and even of its weapon in some cases. I bough this beastman-like mech suit which changes the greatsword from a pretty standard looking thing into a wide jagged ivory looking blade with thorns protruding out of the blade's sides. Kinda primitive looking and very savage.
About 5 hours ago or so I also got access to a base of operations, which opened, of all things, a Suikoden-esque ally recruiting mode of the game out of nowhere. You have to roam around and find people from all walks of life to come to your base and fill it out so you can have a successful war effort conducted out of it. This is one of those things which the game plays straight and doesn't try to be clever with it, cause Suikoden is just that good so you don't wanna mess with that formula. You can also recruit full party members this way too, I got this goat guy who is like the blue mage archetype mixed with Poppeye, he eats monsters by turning them into canned food and then eating them, then learns some sort of special move based on which monster it was. Also his weapon of choice is an anchor. Truly the goat.
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High on Life
Quit after 15 minutes. Uninstalled. Refunded. Rick & Morty dialogue is fine, even funny at times, when watched passively. While I'm actively doing stuff? Unbearable.
Star Wars Squadrons
Was free on the Epic Store a while ago, and got fond memories of X-Wing/Tie Fighter, so some space blasting seemed like a good time. It's fine I guess. Looks quite nice, tho rather annoyingly arbitrarily enables HDR by default in fullscreen, with no option to turn it off in the settings. Gameplay is fun enough, the available ships are fun to fly and fight with, tho mission variety could be better. Story is dumb, but that's Star Wars for you. Takes place a couple years post-Return of the Jedi, but much to my relief, OT wank cameos are minimal, just one mission with Wedge.
Quit after 15 minutes. Uninstalled. Refunded. Rick & Morty dialogue is fine, even funny at times, when watched passively. While I'm actively doing stuff? Unbearable.
Star Wars Squadrons
Was free on the Epic Store a while ago, and got fond memories of X-Wing/Tie Fighter, so some space blasting seemed like a good time. It's fine I guess. Looks quite nice, tho rather annoyingly arbitrarily enables HDR by default in fullscreen, with no option to turn it off in the settings. Gameplay is fun enough, the available ships are fun to fly and fight with, tho mission variety could be better. Story is dumb, but that's Star Wars for you. Takes place a couple years post-Return of the Jedi, but much to my relief, OT wank cameos are minimal, just one mission with Wedge.
Wow a fellow Darksider!
I played that first on a PC I had a while ago, I don't recall any problems.
Now I'm playing Darksiders 2 on the Deck because when I tried it on PC it didn't work sort of? I dunno..
Hera from Rebels apparently shows up a couple times, which I appreciate more then Wedge. Then again, Hera hasn't really shown up in anything else other then a brief mention in Rogue One and a guest appearance in Bad Batch.
Project Wingman
So before Ace Combat 7 was annouced, a group of AC fans decided to make their own AC game for the PC and knowing that, yeah, the way this feels like an off brand AC game makes sense. In some ways it's clear it doesn't have the same resources as Project ACES. There aren't any very pretty cutscenes and the plane models don't look quite as good. Also the fact they had to get around plane licensing fees by just....changing some of the names slightly to skirt legal issues. Yeah, apparently PA had to pay Boeing to use a digital F-18 Super Hornet in an Ace Combat game and so on. Licensing law is wierd.
But in general it's an AC game. Notable differences is that an average plane in Project Wingman can carry like 4 different types of weapons(Including unlimited regular missiles instead of just a ridiculous amount) and it takes place in a post apocalyptic future after some kind of geological calamity, but despite civilization being wiped out and parts of the world map looking VERY different, you have militaries with huge fleets of modern warplanes and even some crazy flying battlecruisers just a few centuries later, so apparently civilization didn't get set back THAT much. So like Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind except....you know, it doesn't matter. Big battles, things go boom, buy better planes to make things go boom bigger.
Voice Acting and writing so far is pretty entertaining and the missions are fairly well done so far(having finished mission 4).
So before Ace Combat 7 was annouced, a group of AC fans decided to make their own AC game for the PC and knowing that, yeah, the way this feels like an off brand AC game makes sense. In some ways it's clear it doesn't have the same resources as Project ACES. There aren't any very pretty cutscenes and the plane models don't look quite as good. Also the fact they had to get around plane licensing fees by just....changing some of the names slightly to skirt legal issues. Yeah, apparently PA had to pay Boeing to use a digital F-18 Super Hornet in an Ace Combat game and so on. Licensing law is wierd.
But in general it's an AC game. Notable differences is that an average plane in Project Wingman can carry like 4 different types of weapons(Including unlimited regular missiles instead of just a ridiculous amount) and it takes place in a post apocalyptic future after some kind of geological calamity, but despite civilization being wiped out and parts of the world map looking VERY different, you have militaries with huge fleets of modern warplanes and even some crazy flying battlecruisers just a few centuries later, so apparently civilization didn't get set back THAT much. So like Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind except....you know, it doesn't matter. Big battles, things go boom, buy better planes to make things go boom bigger.
Voice Acting and writing so far is pretty entertaining and the missions are fairly well done so far(having finished mission 4).
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Yeah, I noticed. I can live with that. OT wank is having Luke, Han, Leia, Lando or such show up, or a mission on Tatooine or any of the OT planets. I am just so tired of that. You have no idea how relieved I was that Andor has none of it aside from Mon Mothma, who wasn't so much a character in the OT as an exposition device telling us many Bothan have died to bring us this information.