What are you currently playing?

[meiam]

Star Wars Squadrons, which I got free on Epic a short while ago. It's OK. My first point of contention with it is that I don't like the control layout as much as Ace Combat 7 or Elite Dangerous, and having the throttle bound to a control stick you also need to help pull off fancy moves in particular is an annoyance I could do without. It's also a touch janky - I died at the same time as destroying an objective on the second mission, which resulted in me respawning at the last checkpoint without the objective doing the same. Fortunately this was resolved by quitting to the main menu and going back into the mission, which caused the game to decide that I'd completed it. I'm also not convinced by the campaign having mandatory missions where you play as an Imperial pilot, because fuck the Empire.

Personally I really hated the UI, the radar is completly pointless since all it does is show you what's in front of your ship (ie what you already see) and does nothing to tell you what's behind you (and you also can't look at your 6). You duck tape a small mirror on it and it would literally be an improvement, but that's too advanced for the empire/rebel.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Supraland.

It's s first person puzzle game in the vein of Portal but with a Metroidvania sensibility in the design.

Takes place in a literal sandbox and you control a red figurine who leaves the red figurine village to claim back water for his people from the blue figurine people, a dumb potboiler plot that's being orchestrated by the kid who built the sandbox and watches over everything like a colossus towering in the background. There isn't much to the plot other than the theming and that's good enough.

For gameplay you traverse a series of interconnecting sandbox modules by reverse-engineering how to open doors. It starts off simple by way of using triple jumps (good for long jumps, but the max height of a perfectly vertical triple jump is puny as fuck) and spawning force cubes, primarily for weighing down switches and/or used as platforms. By the end you'll be resorting to magnetism, momentum, changing the properties of things, rewiring electrical circuits with impromptu conductors and working gigantic Rube Goldberg contraptions much like one plays Jenga, precariously moving pieces around. The game is rife with mechanics, both in terms of movement and applications for your weapons/gadgets; once a new concept is introduced the game wastes no time in coming up with iterations to test your lateral thinking.

This feel like the Metroidvania equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet. You get movement upgrades up the wazoo, every new one merits touring the whole map to test it out, you can break a fair share of the game with the tools at your disposal, there're secrets hidden in every nook and cranny, exploration is always rewarded with something useful, the versatility of the design is such you'll think you've gone out of bounds before discovering a reward or shortcut of some kind, there're probably hundreds of collectibles and plenty of trophies to unlock (nothing being missable). There's no map, which didn't bother me but might be a huge no to a lot of people. Combat is basic Doom, which off-sets the harder brain teasers nicely. My only criticism is the presentation is somewhat sloppy and the writing is a bit amateurish and lazy (which you can tell was a comedic decision).

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

I saw this pass across my Steam recommendation list, but I wasn't sure about it. But if you're that happy with it so far, then maybe I'll check it out once I'm regularly using my PC again.

Well there were a few other minor criticisms I didn't add cause the post word count was already making me feel more self-conscious and insecure, but it did exceed cynical expectations on first impressions.

Luckily, KC from this site's 3min reviews has a vid that'll probably be more helpful than my rambling nonsense (this is bound to earn me some escapist bucks from Nick at least )

Blacktail Review in 3 Minutes - Archery & Magic in Slavic Myth

Blacktail Review in 3 Minutes: The Parasight & Focus Entertainment have a cool and original first-person archery game set in Slavic myth.

www.escapistmagazine.com

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Finished Ragnarok story mode. Wonderful game overall and looking forward to cleaning up post game stuff. It’s weird how much smaller the game felt in a way though, due to most of the realm travel being very linear and story-centric. The first game seemed like there was more free roaming but they probably figured it hurts pacing. I guess one other plus to that is when you do realm hop, you don’t need the bifrost key to rotate the tree and such.

So anyways, can’t fault Sindri for doing what he did, but I wish he’d take Brok’s dying words to heart and let it go. Still feel bad for Thor. Odin got off too easy. He should’ve been thrown into the rift and they could’ve added some closure there along the lines of illustrating what a waste of time his search for truth was. It took me a while to think of it but you know who he reminds me of? George Carlin, but without a sense of humor. Nothing against the VA though as they still played him well.

Kinda glad Atreus is off doing his own thing. The actual “Ragnarok” event seemed pretty anticlimactic. Maybe post-game exploring will show more of its effects, but for the narrative portion it was merely like a backdrop to the standard waves of enemies before the final battles.

Which kinda ties into one of my biggest gripes that none of the boss fights felt very…well, epic. In terms of combat and boss fights I’d still rather play the older games because they often had a larger than life feel to the scale and violence. Especially the PS3 games with the fancy camera work. The main dragon fight from 2018 is still the high point of these two newer ones.

Also most of the enemies in general still felt very damage spongy, even on Balanced. Like there’s one of the Hateful draugers on the lake by the temple who just tanks dozens of hits from the frosty ax and he’s a mf’in fire monster. It just always feels odd when Kratos, a god of war, can be killed by in three swipes by some grim yet survive something like a mjolnir face plant during a cinematic. Speaking of which, there were several neat sequences that I guess were a substitute to the epic scale stuff of yore. One of my favorites was Kratos running through the jungle carrying some dude and having all hell break loose around them. The dream sequences were also pretty classy.

I’ll have more to say once I get into post game stuff. Might drop it to the lowest difficulty to save some time since nothing trophy-related is tied to difficulty select anyways.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Might drop it to the lowest difficulty to save some time since nothing trophy-related is tied to difficulty select anyways.

Oh I absolutely did this. I think for the main game I only dropped the difficulty for one fight, which was a side quest anyway (I was trying to do as much side stuff during the main campaign as I could).

In fact, one interesting thing the game does with side stuff is that, because of how the story works, your companion will either be Atreus of Freya. And I did one side quest (one that has gotten the most attention) after main campaign with Freya and at the end she says how it's a shame Atreus wasn't there with me. This is the game providing a guilt-driven motivation to replay the game. Clever/annoying.

 

[Dalisclock]

Luckily, KC from this site's 3min reviews has a vid that'll probably be more helpful than my rambling nonsense (this is bound to earn me some escapist bucks from Nick at least )

Wait, do we get escapist bucks for posting the 3MRs?

I've been missing out on SO MANY ESCAPIST BUCKS!

I don't actually know what Escapist Buck is and now I'm too afraid to ask.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I don't actually know what Escapist Buck is and now I'm too afraid to ask.

Whatever it is it'll be infititely better than any cryptocoin.

 

[Dreiko]

Herein comes the fundamental disagreement I've been unable to reconcile in my brain for as long as I've tried to play those kinds of games: why not just make it turn-based then? The thing I guess my brain is just completely incapable of dealing with is how am I supposed to know what the fuck to do in combat if I'm supposed to be issuing commands to the entire party all at once? How am I supposed to tell where the enemies are headed, who they're going to attack, whether the AoE I'm casting will end up hitting nobody, what's the best positioning etc. etc. I can't tell the future. I tried playing Wrath of the Righteous with real time with pause for one fight, and on one occasion two big dudes ended up downing my paladin from full HP in like 3 seconds. How the fuck was I supposed to prepare for that while keeping track of everything else?

Because it's EA and they had a brainrot of turn based being unpopular (and also sticking multiplayer into everything, see Mass Effect 2-3) so they tried to make the game which very clearly was made to be turn based seem more actiony.

There is a valid argument for both methods of play in the subsequent games where they toned down the important of stats like accuracy and so on to make it more like an action rpg and have less of a dice roll decide you whiffed when your axe went right through their skulls, but not with Origins. Also Origins was in development for a long while, I think like 6ish years or something, so it was originally conceived before the brainrot set in place so it was a lot harder to rework it to actually mechanically be as actiony as it seemed I think, meanwhile the sequels, especially 2, were rushed out a lot quicker and had a more current for the time outlook.


As for telling where the enemies will end up, you just manage your hate generation basically, you stick out the heavy armor unit in front and have it be followed from afar (there's an AI behavior you can set up of how far back you wanna have chars follow the unit you control), enemies target heavier armored units more and if you delay the actions of the mages by a bit until you have the warrior being hit then you can easily aim a spell. Also the more wide AoE nukes are really quite huge and there are delaying effects like frost which slow enemies down. You really have to try hard to miss with those.

But but but... you don't play a Qunari you play a Tal Vashoth.



* many Bothans have died for this pedantry

Sure but a Tal Vashoth wouldn't himself know that cause they also think all the horny goat bros are qunari. Gotta stick to the role.

 

[Bartholen]

Okay, so I played through the origin with my new character in Dragon Age Origins (female human rogue, the only available origin being noble which felt rather weird), and having played through like 200 years worth of Divinity Original Sin 2 I assumed I'd have a grasp on how party-based western RPGs controlled. But I'm legit puzzled at this control scheme. There's basically 2 different ones, yet both of them feel half-assed. You can either be in third person mode and move around freely (as long as you remap the retarded default keys), but that gives you a punishingly narrow view of combat, and the only way to turn the camera after remapping the controls is right click. You have a top down view, but you can't pan the camera more than like 50 feet away from your character to see what's in your general vicinity, and turning the camera is mapped to the same key you use for clicking your character around, and you can't rebind it. And the cherry on top is that you can only rotate the camera horizontally, not vertically, which for a fully 3D rendered game feels completely baffling. I didn't think it was even possible to make top-down movement feel clunky, yet this game somehow managed. Time will tell if I'll be able to get used to it.

The combat feels as uninvolved and confusing as ever with these games. I'll probably turn the "pause at the start of combat" option off and play the game more like an RTS. I still have no chuffing idea how I'm supposed to tell what abilities I should be using against who and when. It feels like trying to dance a waltz in the middle of a moshpit. And as predicted, even when I'm trying to be tactical with my movement and position my archer behind my melee fighters, the enemies rush all of them anyway before they even finish moving into position.

 

[Dalisclock]

Okay, so I played through the origin with my new character in Dragon Age Origins (female human rogue, the only available origin being noble which felt rather weird), and having played through like 200 years worth of Divinity Original Sin 2 I assumed I'd have a grasp on how party-based western RPGs controlled. But I'm legit puzzled at this control scheme. There's basically 2 different ones, yet both of them feel half-assed. You can either be in third person mode and move around freely (as long as you remap the retarded default keys), but that gives you a punishingly narrow view of combat, and the only way to turn the camera after remapping the controls is right click. You have a top down view, but you can't pan the camera more than like 50 feet away from your character to see what's in your general vicinity, and turning the camera is mapped to the same key you use for clicking your character around, and you can't rebind it. And the cherry on top is that you can only rotate the camera horizontally, not vertically, which for a fully 3D rendered game feels completely baffling. I didn't think it was even possible to make top-down movement feel clunky, yet this game somehow managed. Time will tell if I'll be able to get used to it.

The combat feels as uninvolved and confusing as ever with these games. I'll probably turn the "pause at the start of combat" option off and play the game more like an RTS. I still have no chuffing idea how I'm supposed to tell what abilities I should be using against who and when. It feels like trying to dance a waltz in the middle of a moshpit. And as predicted, even when I'm trying to be tactical with my movement and position my archer behind my melee fighters, the enemies rush all of them anyway before they even finish moving into position.

I always felt positioning felt mostly like a lost cause. The best I could do was keep control of the rogue and put it behind the guy I'm trying to stabby stabby for sweet backstabby damage and every so often pick something for the mage(s) to cast. Supposedly people make it work, especially on the harder difficulties but No idea how people really did it without micromanaging all the time at which point why the fuck is this not turned based. DA2 felt a little better where you could let characters run themselves but positioning was still annoying because dudes would literally appear somewhere(often right behind you) because WAVE 2 HAS ENTERED THE BATTLE. They even made a joke about it in DAI when Varric gets asked "Where do the bad guys come from? Literally, they just appear"

The two views are fucking awkward. Like I think you're supposed to use the behind the character view for walking around and the top down view is for combat management but neither is great and both feel really weirdly implemented.

 

[Bartholen]

Because it's EA and they had a brainrot of turn based being unpopular (and also sticking multiplayer into everything, see Mass Effect 2-3) so they tried to make the game which very clearly was made to be turn based seem more actiony.

I'd be willing to bet money that had something to do with it. It's downright quaint, almost cute how hard EA's influence seems to be pushing the game's hardcore-ness: from the blood spatter forming the logo for Bioware, to the notoriously copious persistent gore effects. I remember one trailer (maybe the launch one) had Marilyn Manson's "This is the new shit" playing in the background. It was laughable back then, and I bet it's pure comedy gold these days.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Because it's EA and they had a brainrot of turn based being unpopular (and also sticking multiplayer into everything, see Mass Effect 2-3) so they tried to make the game which very clearly was made to be turn based seem more actiony.

Take Two/2K Games had the same brainrot when they decided The Bureau - XCom Declassified was a good idea because "turn based games don't sell" despite publishing at least 3 iterations of the Civ franchise.

 

[BrawlMan]

I'd be willing to bet money that had something to do with it. It's downright quaint, almost cute how hard EA's influence seems to be pushing the game's hardcore-ness: from the blood spatter forming the logo for Bioware, to the notoriously copious persistent gore effects. I remember one trailer (maybe the launch one) had Marilyn Manson's "This is the new shit" playing in the background. It was laughable back then, and I bet it's pure comedy gold these days.

Take Two/2K Games had the same brainrot when they decided The Bureau - XCom Declassified was a good idea because "turn based games don't sell" despite publishing at least 3 iterations of the Civ franchise.

The era of 7th gen and some of 8th gen: "X games/genres don't sell well (anymore)! This genre of gaming is dead or not mature enough!" Proceeds to make a reboot product that is worse and is even less mature, then blames it on audience, or claiming no one wants another game, because it bombed.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The era of 7th gen and some of 8th gen: "X games/genres don't sell well (anymore)! This genre of gaming is dead or not mature enough!" Proceeds to make a reboot product that is worse and is even less mature, then blames it on audience, or claiming no one wants another game, because it bombed.

Well, no, not in the case of TT/2K with XCOM because they eventually let Firaxis loose on it and did rather well out of it. It only took several months of the internet telling them that's exactly what needed doing if they wanted to save the franchise from their own stupidity.

 

[BrawlMan]

Well, no, not in the case of TT/2K with XCOM because they eventually let Firaxis loose on it and did rather well out of it. It only took several months of the internet telling them that's exactly what needed doing if they wanted to save the franchise from their own stupidity.

I remember, but I felt the phasing a lot of companies were using at the time is relevant and adds to your point.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I remember, but I felt the phasing a lot of companies were using at the time is relevant and adds to your point.

Fairy nuff, and you're not wrong. Typical game industry, too busy chasing what's popular to value what they already have.

 

[Dreiko]

I'd be willing to bet money that had something to do with it. It's downright quaint, almost cute how hard EA's influence seems to be pushing the game's hardcore-ness: from the blood spatter forming the logo for Bioware, to the notoriously copious persistent gore effects. I remember one trailer (maybe the launch one) had Marilyn Manson's "This is the new shit" playing in the background. It was laughable back then, and I bet it's pure comedy gold these days.

I remember the old Origins trailers, they outsourced them to some cgi company I believe, cause the animation they had actually was really hype, especially for like 2008 or whenever it was. The music I remember less so. Though I do remember the impression of it being like a Doom trailer more so than for a fantasy series. They were really trying to push how dark it was, like it was Berserk or something, in the marketing.

Okay, so I played through the origin with my new character in Dragon Age Origins (female human rogue, the only available origin being noble which felt rather weird), and having played through like 200 years worth of Divinity Original Sin 2 I assumed I'd have a grasp on how party-based western RPGs controlled. But I'm legit puzzled at this control scheme. There's basically 2 different ones, yet both of them feel half-assed. You can either be in third person mode and move around freely (as long as you remap the retarded default keys), but that gives you a punishingly narrow view of combat, and the only way to turn the camera after remapping the controls is right click. You have a top down view, but you can't pan the camera more than like 50 feet away from your character to see what's in your general vicinity, and turning the camera is mapped to the same key you use for clicking your character around, and you can't rebind it. And the cherry on top is that you can only rotate the camera horizontally, not vertically, which for a fully 3D rendered game feels completely baffling. I didn't think it was even possible to make top-down movement feel clunky, yet this game somehow managed. Time will tell if I'll be able to get used to it.

The combat feels as uninvolved and confusing as ever with these games. I'll probably turn the "pause at the start of combat" option off and play the game more like an RTS. I still have no chuffing idea how I'm supposed to tell what abilities I should be using against who and when. It feels like trying to dance a waltz in the middle of a moshpit. And as predicted, even when I'm trying to be tactical with my movement and position my archer behind my melee fighters, the enemies rush all of them anyway before they even finish moving into position.

I played it on ps3 which didn't have the isometric view so I just used the pause menu, then circled between chars while paused to look at my enemie's positions and made it up on the spot. Early on you have few abilities and they all have cooldown timers so just use everything as soon as you can and don't worry too much. Rogue is one of those classes that starts out weak and gets very strong once you get a full setup of skills cause they rely on backstabbing crits like you're playing FFXI if you go with daggers or act as a debuffer with a few damage bursts if you go archer, so the basic idea is have someone else tank and then sneak behind and backstab em, or if you're playing an archer just sit as far away as possible and let your pup tank.

But yeah it's nowhere near as tactical as Divinity, you will rely more on just straight up outstatting a lot of foes. Also don't be shy to use healing items. They are rather plentiful.

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished the first 8 missions of Project Wingman, which puts me about 1/3 through the game. So far the only mission I've had any trouble with with the one with hitting the energy facilities in the lava fields and i had to do that mission a bunch of times after almost beating it the first time through. Yeah, it's very Ace Combat and the mission flow feels pretty well done so far. I did have to relearn some AC habits because it's much easier to go into a stall in PW and that's fucked me more then enemy missiles have(I got really used to doing tight turns in AC while throttling down and....yeah, that doesn't work so good here).

On one hand, some of the effects look really good. One mission where you're fighting over the ocean in a rainy lightening storm really looks great. By contrast, you have missions where EVERYTHING IS FUCKING ORANGE(and the googles do NOTHING).

I also appreciate you can have more then one special weapon at one time on your plane for a variety of situations, and the little factor that the sound of the weapons being ready to use again sounds like a shotgun being cocked. Does it make sense? Nope. Is it cool? Hell yeah.

Enjoying it though and looking forward to playing more.

 

[BrawlMan]

Evil West. I will explain my experience so far in the dedicated thread.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Cleaning up post game in Ragnarok. The Apple Core place is all kinds of wtf. I dropped the game to Story difficulty (yes, the far opposite of God of War diff) and that berserker pair hit like a pair of Mack trucks while my damage has been nothing but minuscule at best. I’ll call them the tanky tanks because that best describes my experience with them so far.

Getting to the other side of the map where the last collectibles reside has also been an exercise in patience and ultimately has curated a growing hatred of waterwheels. It sucks because they are usually such a calming, charming thing to observe in other games. I think even watching a YouTube clip of however the illogical fuck of a solution there is would make my brain leak grey matter.