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BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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Hi-Fi Rush- just not feelin' this one either. It's.. fine, I dunno, cute, but silly. Part of me gets why it's a Big Deal but I think part of the hype is, like, to make some point about The Industry, too. Like it's a fine game, nothing against it, but whatever, man. *shrug*
Think @Old_Hunter_77, think! The reason why people are loving this game so much, is because HF is a true gamers game for all gamers! We have a lost 6th generation title with all the quality updates for the modern generation. No crappy DLC (I know there is DLC costumes in the digital deluxe edition, but the costumes can still be unlocked by playing the game and beating challenges), no microtransactions, no "time savers", and no season passes! Just straight up, old-school style action game with great and innovative combat mechanics. The platforming works and never outstays its welcome, and HF knows how to change it up. It's also the only worthwhile "exclusive" on Series X.

BTW, did you finish Evil West yet? Any thoughts?
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Think @Old_Hunter_77, think! The reason why people are loving this game so much, is because HF is a true gamers game for all gamers! We have a lost 6th generation title with all the quality updates for the modern generation. No crappy DLC (I know there is DLC costumes in the digital deluxe edition, but the costumes can still be unlocked by playing the game and beating challenges), no microtransactions, no "time savers", and no season passes! Just straight up, old-school style action game with great and innovative combat mechanics. The platforming works and never outstays its welcome, and HF knows how to change it up. It's also the only worthwhile "exclusive" on Series X.

BTW, did you finish Evil West yet? Any thoughts?
Yeah I get all that, and it's fine. I'm not like upset or mad about, I'm just saying that to me the actual playing of the game doesn't match the enthusiasm of the gaming games for gamers. Part of it I guess is "lost 6th generation" thing doesn't mean much to me. I'm cool with whatever generation we're in, lol. I have like zero nostalgia for game graphics and presentation at this point (that doesn't mean I won't play something with retro, just that it's not the thing to get me hyped).
Since I put under 2 hours, I got my Steam refund and maybe I'll go back to it when it's on some sale or something. It's just move from "gotta play it now" to "sure, some day maybe, I guess."

Evil West- yeah I finished it, I'm pretty sure I posted about somewhere? Well, either way, the game is good, also I would recommend it generally as "buy it used" because the enemy swarms get annoying. Quite frankly I've kind of had enough of the whole enemies flying at you from off screen style of combat. And yes I know recent God of Wars helped make that popular and I did love those to death, and maybe that's why I'm burned out on it, but also GoW had awesome story and characters and world building and all that stuff that EW was less interested in.

I get why you love these games and I appreciate them for this reason. They are good and I would heartily recommend them to anyone that looks at the trailer and says, "cool!" But I would not hold them on any kind of pedestal and I'll forget about them in like a month. Which is fine. They're fine.
 

BrawlMan

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Yeah I get all that, and it's fine. I'm not like upset or mad about, I'm just saying that to me the actual playing of the game doesn't match the enthusiasm of the gaming games for gamers. Part of it I guess is "lost 6th generation" thing doesn't mean much to me. I'm cool with whatever generation we're in, lol. I have like zero nostalgia for game graphics and presentation at this point (that doesn't mean I won't play something with retro, just that it's not the thing to get me hyped).
Since I put under 2 hours, I got my Steam refund and maybe I'll go back to it when it's on some sale or something. It's just move from "gotta play it now" to "sure, some day maybe, I guess."
Nothing wrong with that. The reason why I enjoy it so much? It's a just a great game with none of the screw over the consumer bullshit. HF has its own unique looks, and builds off of old fundamentals that work or improve upon them.

Evil West- yeah I finished it, I'm pretty sure I posted about somewhere? Well, either way, the game is good, also I would recommend it generally as "buy it used" because the enemy swarms get annoying. Quite frankly I've kind of had enough of the whole enemies flying at you from off screen style of combat. And yes I know recent God of Wars helped make that popular and I did love those to death, and maybe that's why I'm burned out on it, but also GoW had awesome story and characters and world building and all that stuff that EW was less interested in.
I like Evil West's story for being more straight forward and simple. Nothing more, nothing less. Besides, Evil West is taking more from games like God Hand and Anarchy Reigns than Norse GoW; shoulder buttons aside as melee buttons. Of course, GoW4&R have the better story, but EW has better pacing and way less forced walking segments. It's the most straight to the point you can ever get.
I get why you love these games and I appreciate them for this reason.
Thank you.

But I would not hold them on any kind of pedestal
For me, it's less of pedestal and more of, just make a good and fun game. One of the many things this industry needs to relearn unfortunately.

I'll forget about them in like a month.
That's you. I will remember Evil West and Hi-Fi Rush more than the next AC, Far Cry, COD, GTA whatever 9000.
Evil West- yeah I finished it, I'm pretty sure I posted about somewhere? Well, either way, the game is good, also I would recommend it generally as "buy it used" because the enemy swarms get annoying. Quite frankly I've kind of had enough of the whole enemies flying at you from off screen style of combat.
They can be a pain indeed. There are ways around them and just knowing the patterns and listening for sound cues. The attacking off-screen is a problem, but I never had that much trouble with it on my playthrough. I make sure not to waste too much time on an enemy, if I know others are coming to my sides or behind in a few seconds. You still have a point on the problem.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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OlliOlli World

Cutesy 2D skating game that's really testing my patience. Every level has three tiers to complete (beat with no checkpoints, complete three challenges and beat three high scores) and MERCIFULLY you don't have to do everything in one run. World 1 is manageable but after that I was satisfied enough with getting to the end of each course. By World 4 you're basically asked to complete each course in a single flawless uninterrupted combo.

The presentation's alright. The OST is all lo-fi beats that blend together. The character banter at the beginning of every course gets old fast but you're allowed to skip it. The art style is the same cel shaded cutesy anthro-everything Gen Z utopia where everyone is friends with each other and leads a carefree existence revolving around a single common denominator hobby, not a single nasty responsibility in sight. Sigh.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
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I completed my PS5 platinum run of Witcher 3.
This time I added an extra challenge by ending the main story campaign with the platinum trophy. This meant getting every other non-DLC trophy before starting the last main quest. Mostly this is easy enough if you know the game as well as I do but the tricky part is the stupid combat related trophies, that are like "shoot 50 dudes in the head with your piece of crap crossbow" or "push 10 dudes off a mountain even though you like never fight on a mountain" or "use literally the worst skill in the game, the one where you can convert enemies to be your zombies but it never actually works" or whatever.

And the place where it used to be easiest to grind those trophies out is no longer available for that- the Devil's Pit location, where bandits would respawn, is now the location for the new quest added with the next-gen update. Fortunately, I found with the help of youtube another location in Skellige that spawns two dudes all the time, you don't even have to fast travel away and back, and it is actually at the top of a mountain.

I may or may not do the DLC's at some point in the future but this was definitely my final last for-real this time play-through of the base game.
At one point a while ago I was considering all achievements for this on Steam, but definitely not with crap like that. Especially the Gwent stuff. I’d rather do the gambling challenges in RDR2 all over again than slog through that.
 

Thaluikhain

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Magical Diary: Wolf Hall

Which is sorta the sequel to Magical Diary: Horse Hall, only it takes place at the same time and things are different because the character from the second game wasn't in the first. Like the first game, it is possible to work hard, learn a bunch of spells, and then find out that they are seemingly useless in your exams. It is possible for this to happen a lot.

Didn't like this one quite so much, it was still good, but your character is less likeable than in the first.
 
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Absent

And twice is the only way to live.
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The boring one
I'm having fun with ChessLocke.

Many years ago, I used to play a lot of a hilarious card game for chess named Storm Over The Chessboard (Americans of course edited it in an entirely humorless, pseudo badass version named Knightmare Chess - know your audience 🙄 ). The idea is that you play chess normally, but also play cards that allow special movies, from the most technical ones (swap your knight and your bishop) to the most unfair one (take an opponent's pawn if they've made an impolite remark), and all sort of wacky ones (have the opponent look away, grab one of their pieces on the board, and keep it if they failed to tell which one is missing), even going full crossver with other games of the same publisher (use that other game's dart pistol to try and shoot one of the opponent's pieces). Yes, fun times. Games used to get noisy pretty fast. Anyway.

Chesslocke is more sober and more serious. You earn XP during your game, you use them to level up your pieces and give them extra powers, such as shielding nearby pieces, promoting a pawn, swapping places, move an opponent piece, etc. The campaign is made of chess games with various start configurations (sometimes with walled tiles), and the AI plays quite seriously. Unlike Storm, the goal in ChessLocke isn't to checkmate the king (which can be catured like any other piece), but to spend one turn on the king's starting tile, dubbed the throne. This alone makes it an interesting take on chess.

I like chess variants with more or less crazy elements. Like the progressive army building of Majestic Chess, the shootouts of Warhammer 40k Regicide, even the kinda failed experiment (in my eyes) of 5D Chess. ChessLocke is one of the most fun so far.

Gotta try Shotgun King one of these days...
 

Old_Hunter_77

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At one point a while ago I was considering all achievements for this on Steam, but definitely not with crap like that. Especially the Gwent stuff. I’d rather do the gambling challenges in RDR2 all over again than slog through that.
The gwent was the fun part. I mean if I didn't enjoy actually playing Gwent I'd never bother. The only annoying achievements were those combat grindy ones but I think I knocked 'em out in like half and hour.
 
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Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
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More demos

Planet of Lana
Puzzle platformer in the vein of Limbo or Inside, with just a dash of Ico, and some Ghibli-esque visuals. You're a young boy or girl (unclear) and have to surmount obstacles with the help of a black cat-like creature that follows you around. @Xprimentyl, I remember you like this type of game, so maybe have a look. Xbox and pc only tho.

Shadow of Doubt

Neo-noir first person immersive sim. Puts you in the shoes of a detective and gives you a whole randomly generated city to solve cases in as you see fit. Lots of potential for open-ended gameplay, but does kind of throw you in the deep end. Also, immersive sims tend to require meticulous design to shine, so not convinced about the random generation.
 

Xprimentyl

Made you look...
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More demos

Planet of Lana
Puzzle platformer in the vein of Limbo or Inside, with just a dash of Ico, and some Ghibli-esque visuals. You're a young boy or girl (unclear) and have to surmount obstacles with the help of a black cat-like creature that follows you around. @Xprimentyl, I remember you like this type of game, so maybe have a look. Xbox and pc only tho.
Awesome, thanks for the recommendation! Just looked at some still shots, and it does indeed have the kind of aesthetic that made me love Limbo and Inside so much. And I'm an Xbox pleb, so I win for once.
 

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
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More demos. Ok, just one today.

Sea of Stars
Old school jrpg with very pretty pixel art, reminiscent of SNES era Square, or rather what rose tinted glasses convince us those games look like. Very Chrono Trigger-esque, both in terms of presentation (they somehow got Yasunori Mitsuda to compose for them) and gameplay. It's got a similar turn-based combat system, including a variation on CTs techs, tho it also includes Mario rpg style timed button presses to increase your damage or decrease incoming damage. Very promising, tho I wish there were better indicators for the timed button presses as it's currently not always clear to me what the timings are or whether I succeeded or not. It's also quite challenging, tho that may be because I haven't figured out the systems yet.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
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More demos. Ok, just one today.

Sea of Stars
Old school jrpg with very pretty pixel art, reminiscent of SNES era Square, or rather what rose tinted glasses convince us those games look like. Very Chrono Trigger-esque, both in terms of presentation (they somehow got Yasunori Mitsuda to compose for them) and gameplay. It's got a similar turn-based combat system, including a variation on CTs techs, tho it also includes Mario rpg style timed button presses to increase your damage or decrease incoming damage. Very promising, tho I wish there were better indicators for the timed button presses as it's currently not always clear to me what the timings are or whether I succeeded or not. It's also quite challenging, tho that may be because I haven't figured out the systems yet.
Is the Demo just on Switch? I've been looking for it on STEAM but no nice so far.
 

Drathnoxis

Became a mass murderer for your sake
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Just off-screen
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Dead Space- man, that is not for me. I new the darkness would be rough but it's... well, too dark, lol. Nah man, sci-fi horror games are not for me, it's just too much squinting.
I do gotta say, the intro is a master class of pacing- setup, basic tutorial as you go- I really wish more current games did it like this. No endless fucking menus or pompous lecturing or waypoints all over the place to "remind" you of whatever bullshit, just pure game. Good stuff.
I was intrigued by the combat system, where you have to cut off limbs with engineering tools, that's what got me interested. But in practice, with the darkness, it was just too difficult and annoying for me personally. I think this is probably a wonderful game that I will not enjoy so I'm gonna return it while I can.
Can't just turn the brightness up?
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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Ninja Gaiden Σ2 again. I did Chapter Challenge Mission 2 on Warrior (Hard) and did all of the Tag Missions on Warrior too. Now all there's left are Mentor, Master Ninja, and Ultimate Ninja. That may be a problem. I am happy to finally get my bearings again and combo into Izuna Drop consistently.
 
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TheMysteriousGX

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Still picking my way through Final Fantasy 14, probably about halfway through Stormblood. Slow going when you're trying to keep every class at level for quests, but that's my mental problems flaring up. Would be much faster if I picked a couple favorite classes and just went. Cutscenes keep getting better and better tech wise.

Got a complaint to register with the Valentine's event though: the story about how you should dress and present how you like to make yourself happy instead of bending to the supposed will of others/the status quo/tradition at the cost of your own happiness is a great lesson to have...and then you genderlocked the event costume items? In the year of our lord 2023? The fuck, Squeenix, the fuck

Playing Stellaris with friends. Teaming up as Determined Exterminators to rid the galaxy of biological filth. *Almost* got run over by a coalition of literally 2/3rds of the galaxy, but then a couple stagnant precursor empires decided to have a midlife crisis and start a big ol' war amongst themselves, demanding fealty of the lesser (well, lesserer) races and splitting up that big Martial Alliance. Silly organics with their ridiculous infighting, signing the death warrant of the galaxy when they could've finished the job

Also still picking though Splatoon. Fun when I have the energy for it, dunno why I take the breaks I do. Dunno about the announced DLC for the alternative lobby, but it's not a communal lobby anyway so it's not like they're splitting the player base or anything.
 

sXeth

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Still working Monster Hunter Rise.


Weird to say this one feels a bit easy? Obviously I've more experience then I did going into world, and have only just reached the "real" game, of course. But even the big fight they setup with Magnamalo didn't boil down to much (although I got his mechanic figured out quick, I imagine it hurts folks who don't deal with it). Another thing is that the monsters feel generally like they lean into the smaller sizes on the randomizer, which in turn makes them more dodgeable.


Also Longsword users need to be put in their own damn queue. Same with the dual blade and sword and shields that spam their new wirebug moves thats basically Kratos' chains.
 

BrawlMan

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Weird to say this one feels a bit easy? Obviously I've more experience then I did going into world, and have only just reached the "real" game, of course. But even the big fight they setup with Magnamalo didn't boil down to much (although I got his mechanic figured out quick, I imagine it hurts folks who don't deal with it). Another thing is that the monsters feel generally like they lean into the smaller sizes on the randomizer, which in turn makes them more dodgeable.
That's an intentional design choice. Capcom actually made it clear they streamlined some mechanics or made them easier to pull off.