What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
- Start date
Started playing Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
I should specify ahead of time that I watched a playthrough back in the day, and further back in the day, I had a choice of getting it or Sacred Stones. Chose the latter, and while it wouldn't be correct to say I regretted that choice, I DID regret not being able to get PoR as well. Especially since the copy I got cost well over $100 AUD.
Anyway, having played the first 4/5 chapters, I can't really say much for either story or gameplay, but basically, for better or worse, classic FE in a pre-Awakening era, for better or worse. Compared to FE7/8, FE9 doesn't diverge much in terms of gameplay, but thankfully, it's nowhere near being waifu simulator territory. The chapters in question are reasonably challenging so far - not really "hard," but challenging enough that even this early, you have to know what you're doing - get your positioning right, pay attention to the weapons triangle, use your tier 2 units sparingly so the lower ranked units can grind, etc. Like I said, standard, but it's familiarity that I welcome in this case.
I should specify ahead of time that I watched a playthrough back in the day, and further back in the day, I had a choice of getting it or Sacred Stones. Chose the latter, and while it wouldn't be correct to say I regretted that choice, I DID regret not being able to get PoR as well. Especially since the copy I got cost well over $100 AUD.
Anyway, having played the first 4/5 chapters, I can't really say much for either story or gameplay, but basically, for better or worse, classic FE in a pre-Awakening era, for better or worse. Compared to FE7/8, FE9 doesn't diverge much in terms of gameplay, but thankfully, it's nowhere near being waifu simulator territory. The chapters in question are reasonably challenging so far - not really "hard," but challenging enough that even this early, you have to know what you're doing - get your positioning right, pay attention to the weapons triangle, use your tier 2 units sparingly so the lower ranked units can grind, etc. Like I said, standard, but it's familiarity that I welcome in this case.
Been a while since I played that one; it's my personal favorite of the series. Great story, just-right challenge level, almost all of the characters are useful one way or another. Graphics aren't great, but they're workable. Still holding out for a remaster, or any kind of a re-release.
I don't think any of the FE ever had a particularly good story, they're all extremely generic and formulaic, pre awakening were less gringey though. iirc PoR had multiple difficulty setting if you find it too easy.
The story gets quite good...quite good for video games anyway as it goes along, the sequel, Radiant Dawn which was released on the Wii is worth playing too.
Its annoying that the series has gone from serious story to tell with interesting characters with games like Path of Radiance to squealing anime characters in Engage.
Anyway, just a tip. As soon as you get Nephenee, level her up as quickly as you can and she will wreck pretty much everything.
Marvel's Midnight Suns:
So apparently this game bombed hard and I can see why. This game is not going to be for everyone, a turn based card battler featuring Marvel characters with a Persona/Mass Effect style social aspect. Yeah, I'm not sure who thought this might be a good idea when all people want to smash bad guys and it not be a live service. But I'm glad someone did make this, as it is a great game if you can look past a few flaws.
The first being that this game looks like it should be on a PS2, but it isn't without its charms. Walking around the abbey with the creepy,/uplifting/heroic music playing kind of reminded me of playing Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds for some reason. There are plenty of bugs and the loading times are terrible which shouldn't be a problem on PS5 but it is and that is the most annoying thing about this game. Oh, and because its a 2K game, it has a digital currency so you can buy different suits for your characters. That or shell out £40 for the season pass. That might be worse.
The combat is where this game shines. You take 3 party members into battle and of course they all have their own abilities in the form of cards. You get 3 card plays per turn, but if you use a quick attack and score a KO you get that play refunded to you. As you play cards, you gain Hero Points which can be used to play more powerful cards or you can decide to throw bits of scenery around to further damage the enemy. Once all your card plays are used you can end your turn and its the enemies turn and so on until you win. Its a lot of fun and the "KO!!!" exclamation as you destroy an enemy is one of the most satisfying sounds in gaming. Though not so much when it happens to you, failing to bring a healer or someone who can provide barriers will make life really hard for yourself. This is Firaxis we're talking about who made the unforgiving X-Com games.
The other part of the game is spent at the Abbey talking to the other characters, upgrading their and your own abilities and taking them on dates to increase your friendship with them. You can also upgrade the Abbey to make life easier in battles as well as sending some characters out on Hero Ops which means they can not be picked in the next mission but will come back with a new ability. You can stroke the dog which will increase your bond with them for the challenges with her and stroke the cat that shows up at random and will bestow random abilities or cure the injuries to your party. You can join clubs which meet on random nights and honestly, exploring and figuring out the mystery of the Abbey is good fun too.
I really like this game, its a shame it has been such a flop as it deserves better, but it is understandable why it has flopped. Maybe now its an official flop, the cost of the season pass will come down in price pretty quickly.
So apparently this game bombed hard and I can see why. This game is not going to be for everyone, a turn based card battler featuring Marvel characters with a Persona/Mass Effect style social aspect. Yeah, I'm not sure who thought this might be a good idea when all people want to smash bad guys and it not be a live service. But I'm glad someone did make this, as it is a great game if you can look past a few flaws.
The first being that this game looks like it should be on a PS2, but it isn't without its charms. Walking around the abbey with the creepy,/uplifting/heroic music playing kind of reminded me of playing Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds for some reason. There are plenty of bugs and the loading times are terrible which shouldn't be a problem on PS5 but it is and that is the most annoying thing about this game. Oh, and because its a 2K game, it has a digital currency so you can buy different suits for your characters. That or shell out £40 for the season pass. That might be worse.
The combat is where this game shines. You take 3 party members into battle and of course they all have their own abilities in the form of cards. You get 3 card plays per turn, but if you use a quick attack and score a KO you get that play refunded to you. As you play cards, you gain Hero Points which can be used to play more powerful cards or you can decide to throw bits of scenery around to further damage the enemy. Once all your card plays are used you can end your turn and its the enemies turn and so on until you win. Its a lot of fun and the "KO!!!" exclamation as you destroy an enemy is one of the most satisfying sounds in gaming. Though not so much when it happens to you, failing to bring a healer or someone who can provide barriers will make life really hard for yourself. This is Firaxis we're talking about who made the unforgiving X-Com games.
The other part of the game is spent at the Abbey talking to the other characters, upgrading their and your own abilities and taking them on dates to increase your friendship with them. You can also upgrade the Abbey to make life easier in battles as well as sending some characters out on Hero Ops which means they can not be picked in the next mission but will come back with a new ability. You can stroke the dog which will increase your bond with them for the challenges with her and stroke the cat that shows up at random and will bestow random abilities or cure the injuries to your party. You can join clubs which meet on random nights and honestly, exploring and figuring out the mystery of the Abbey is good fun too.
I really like this game, its a shame it has been such a flop as it deserves better, but it is understandable why it has flopped. Maybe now its an official flop, the cost of the season pass will come down in price pretty quickly.
I think it mostly flopped because people are just getting sick super hero/marvel stuff that's everywhere and the generally quite good assumption that a video game adaptation of an IP is going to be crap (see square enix avenger game).
Ultimate Alliance 3 did fine. People still love and are excited for the next Spider-Man and upcoming Wolverine game. People are just tired of bad superhero games. The problem is that Marvel nor Disney have learned nothing. They're still making the same or worse mistakes back in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.
Make actual good games with great single player and co-op experiences. Have at least a decent to good story. UA3, Spider-Man (PS4), & Miles Morales proved that competent work that is not rushed, pays off greatly and earns goodwill.
Last edited:
Planescape: Torment. I was, for reasons unknown to me, of the impression this was a game you could get by with more or less no combat? Well, let me tell you, that's not what's happening so far. What the hell else am I going to do with a stick?
Poke yourself in the eye with it?
Sorry, I haven't played PS:T for like 20 years so I can't help you much. The game has less combat then a game like Baulders gate but I don't know who was telling you there was no combat.
You can talk yourself out of a lot of fights, but there's still combat. I don't remember it being very difficult, though, more of an obligation than a challenge.
I do have very high charisma (in the game) so should be fine. Still, I do have this stick ....
Posting this here rather than CG's thread because I want to actually say something about the game rather than whatever political BS surrounding the game that thread has become about.
Hogwarts Legacy. I played it for a couple hours at my cousin's and it's kind of boring. It feels very by the numbers. The paintings and suits of armor move, there's a bunch of things you can press a button in front of and something 'magical' happens, students stand around in little groups and do something magical nonstop or talk in disjointed speech running one topic immediately into the next, and it all just feels forced. Actually casting spells is so simple as to be boring, like I don't know why Harry and Ron had so much problems with their studies, because Larry Trotter (black hair, glasses, scar over his eye) can learn a spell in about 2 seconds with no theory required. The classes were some of my favorite parts of the books and they are just boring here. I don't really understand where our character came from anyway? How do you only start Hogwarts in fifth year?
I spent most of my time just looking around the castle, and yeah, the environments are detailed, but I just didn't feel interested in any of it. Some places I recognized from the couple of the movies that I've seen. Most of it seems to be locations to hide various collectables. A lot of repeated puzzle doors, eyeball chests, moth mirrors. Boring. The cosmetics are stupid. Like, Hogwarts has a uniform, why would I be wearing googly eye glasses and pink robes or whatever? Also, why does everybody look like they are in their 20s in the game? Where are all the younger students?
Overall it doesn't feel magical at all. There's a feeling of whimsy that is present in the books that this game utterly fails to capture. It feels like the typical AAA affair, and the dull characters do nothing for me either. Also I chose Slytherin, and I understand it's early, but thus far there have been ZERO opportunities to be an elitist prick to anybody. I couldn't even tell the little girl looking for her marbles to go screw herself, instead I have no choice but to agree to help her. Think I'll just watch the first 2 movies again instead of playing any more of this.
Edit: Reading more about the game, apparently large amounts of it take place away from Hogwarts, and that just makes me feel like the developers completely missed the mark on what Harry Potter is about. Having the grand adventure fighting goblin rebels and being some sort of chosen one that has special abilities to see ancient magic or whatever is all detracting from the main thing the game should be delivering: allowing me the experience of being a typical student at Hogwarts. Like, I don't need to be super special, there shouldn't be much of an open world beyond Hogwarts and Hogsmede, and the game should have very little combat. What it needed to deliver was the life of a student in a massive, ancient, and intensely magical castle. The main conflict should be with the other students or a teacher at most. As it is the school feels completely devoid of life, everybody is just standing around aimlessly doing their NPC animations and it sucks because the students should have been the life of the game. This should not have been another open world third person shooter with crafting and RPG elements. A smaller scope (and better writing) would have improved the game immeasurably.
Hogwarts Legacy. I played it for a couple hours at my cousin's and it's kind of boring. It feels very by the numbers. The paintings and suits of armor move, there's a bunch of things you can press a button in front of and something 'magical' happens, students stand around in little groups and do something magical nonstop or talk in disjointed speech running one topic immediately into the next, and it all just feels forced. Actually casting spells is so simple as to be boring, like I don't know why Harry and Ron had so much problems with their studies, because Larry Trotter (black hair, glasses, scar over his eye) can learn a spell in about 2 seconds with no theory required. The classes were some of my favorite parts of the books and they are just boring here. I don't really understand where our character came from anyway? How do you only start Hogwarts in fifth year?
I spent most of my time just looking around the castle, and yeah, the environments are detailed, but I just didn't feel interested in any of it. Some places I recognized from the couple of the movies that I've seen. Most of it seems to be locations to hide various collectables. A lot of repeated puzzle doors, eyeball chests, moth mirrors. Boring. The cosmetics are stupid. Like, Hogwarts has a uniform, why would I be wearing googly eye glasses and pink robes or whatever? Also, why does everybody look like they are in their 20s in the game? Where are all the younger students?
Overall it doesn't feel magical at all. There's a feeling of whimsy that is present in the books that this game utterly fails to capture. It feels like the typical AAA affair, and the dull characters do nothing for me either. Also I chose Slytherin, and I understand it's early, but thus far there have been ZERO opportunities to be an elitist prick to anybody. I couldn't even tell the little girl looking for her marbles to go screw herself, instead I have no choice but to agree to help her. Think I'll just watch the first 2 movies again instead of playing any more of this.
Edit: Reading more about the game, apparently large amounts of it take place away from Hogwarts, and that just makes me feel like the developers completely missed the mark on what Harry Potter is about. Having the grand adventure fighting goblin rebels and being some sort of chosen one that has special abilities to see ancient magic or whatever is all detracting from the main thing the game should be delivering: allowing me the experience of being a typical student at Hogwarts. Like, I don't need to be super special, there shouldn't be much of an open world beyond Hogwarts and Hogsmede, and the game should have very little combat. What it needed to deliver was the life of a student in a massive, ancient, and intensely magical castle. The main conflict should be with the other students or a teacher at most. As it is the school feels completely devoid of life, everybody is just standing around aimlessly doing their NPC animations and it sucks because the students should have been the life of the game. This should not have been another open world third person shooter with crafting and RPG elements. A smaller scope (and better writing) would have improved the game immeasurably.
Last edited:
Decided to get back into Doom Eternal. More specifically, Ancient Gods part 1 as I never finished it. And I forgot I set the difficulty to Ultra-Nightmare 
And oh boy, does this game give me an adrenaline rush. I had to rebuild my reaction time to quickly switch weapons, pop a grenade, or pull out the chainsaw.
The premise of killing demons and fighting the forces of hell is simple but it's the journey and the surprisingly deep lore of Doom world that makes it so great.
There are healthy amounts of platforming challenges and secrets to uncover, which I always welcome.
Some enemies do come up as bullet sponges, and they give you no time to sit back and think about strategy. Gameplay-wise this fits, but there are times when I get overwhelmed and could use a min or two to quietly think.
Chainsaw does provide ammo, but I miss when I could use them to take down larger enemies in the old games. Physical melee is great for glorykills and blood punches, but it again is pretty useless if used raw.
Maybe it's because I'm not far into the dlc just yet, but I'm guessing there are no new power ups, weapons, or suit perks for the DLC? I mean I like the challenge where I have to really up my A-game, but I wish there were some new stuff I could experiment with.
And oh boy, does this game give me an adrenaline rush. I had to rebuild my reaction time to quickly switch weapons, pop a grenade, or pull out the chainsaw.
The premise of killing demons and fighting the forces of hell is simple but it's the journey and the surprisingly deep lore of Doom world that makes it so great.
There are healthy amounts of platforming challenges and secrets to uncover, which I always welcome.
Some enemies do come up as bullet sponges, and they give you no time to sit back and think about strategy. Gameplay-wise this fits, but there are times when I get overwhelmed and could use a min or two to quietly think.
Chainsaw does provide ammo, but I miss when I could use them to take down larger enemies in the old games. Physical melee is great for glorykills and blood punches, but it again is pretty useless if used raw.
Maybe it's because I'm not far into the dlc just yet, but I'm guessing there are no new power ups, weapons, or suit perks for the DLC? I mean I like the challenge where I have to really up my A-game, but I wish there were some new stuff I could experiment with.
Last edited:
Jojo All-Star Battle R (PS4) - Just a fun fighting game with some deep mechanics and a roster of over 50 characters. This an excellent port/remaster of a game from 10 years ago now. I did a little of arcade mode and will try the All-Star Battle mode later. The game is on sale for all consoles at Amazon for $19. A steal for gamers and Jojo fans. Thanks again, CC2 and Namco.
Absent
And twice is the only way to live.
- Jan 25, 2023
- 1,594
- 1,557
- 118
- Country
- Switzerland
- Gender
- The boring one
Just like I'm in a bad movies phase, I'm still playing a collection of second rate games. The trying-to-be-ksp Juno New Origins, and the wishing-I-was-playing-a-better-gta-clone Mafia 2. It's not too bad, it has some interesting aspect (a cool and ambitious time jump making it feel like two games in one, resources-wise) and a lot of care put in the acting, dialogue, story. Cliché as it gets, but that's why someone would play it for. But it's open world without being open world : chapters follow each others with no inbetween, there's little to none side activities, everything feels very artificial, and you get randomly cut short by the advancing plot (thinking of "saving" that stolen car to your garage ? tough luck, you triggered the cutscene and time-jumped to the following month). Also, collectibles, half of them chapter-related, so no easter egg hunting in re-visitable places for those. A blessing or a curse depending on how you feel about that.
Really makes me wish for a better open world game set in that sort of "classic movies" time period. IOI is making a james bond game, probably modelled after their new Hitman series. Can be fun, but it will probably be a modern, Craig-era transposition. These old streets and cars make me wish for an early Connery setting instead...
Really makes me wish for a better open world game set in that sort of "classic movies" time period. IOI is making a james bond game, probably modelled after their new Hitman series. Can be fun, but it will probably be a modern, Craig-era transposition. These old streets and cars make me wish for an early Connery setting instead...
Ended up picking up Pizza Tower after watching a bunch of videos of and about it, and it's a hell of a good time. I've finished the third 'floor', and the levels are all really well designed, bringing in new mechanics in a way that makes total sense and making sure you learn old mechanics to use them effectively. The visual variety's incredible too, and despite looking like John K learned about MS Paint, that aesthetic fits the wacky, uncontrollable tone of the setting and the gameplay both. And it's only about a third the price of a 'full-price' game, too.
It doesn't seem to be much longer, but replaying levels to find secret areas or just learn how to clear them at top speed without losing flow adds plenty of replay value, and 'short' can also often mean 'doesn't wear out its welcome'. If you've ever played other big-name indie 2D platformers like Shovel Knight, Celeste, Ori, Hollow Knight, you'll probably get a lot out of Pizza Tower. It looks and feels different to all of those, but it comes from a similar place.
It doesn't seem to be much longer, but replaying levels to find secret areas or just learn how to clear them at top speed without losing flow adds plenty of replay value, and 'short' can also often mean 'doesn't wear out its welcome'. If you've ever played other big-name indie 2D platformers like Shovel Knight, Celeste, Ori, Hollow Knight, you'll probably get a lot out of Pizza Tower. It looks and feels different to all of those, but it comes from a similar place.
Sea of Stars (Demo)-Switch
The demo is only an hour or so but it's well done and makes me wish that more games would put out demos. Basically, you're plopped into the middle of the action, as the two main heros are dropped onto a mountaintop by a giant of some sort and from there you go down the mountain, explore a town near the bottom, make a deal with some pirates for a boat ride and then go into a dungeon that ends with a boss. It's unclear where in the game this is supposed to take place but it's implied to be fairly early and at one point there's a notable skip between the mountain and the town where presumably you'd spend a decent amount of time descending.
The demo does a pretty good job of introducing the combat system and mechanics, which you need to beat the boss at the end. But mostly it does a great job of showing off how much effort the devs put into the atmosphere and visuals that it feels like a sequel/spiritual successor to CT, and god damn does it work in that regard. It feels like the Dev team, like most people, played Crono Cross and were sad that it basically wasn't CT 2.0, so they made their own. Though it's also a prequel(apparently) to the Messenger, which I haven't gotten around to playing yet.
So good times, looking forward to playing it in August/September.
The demo is only an hour or so but it's well done and makes me wish that more games would put out demos. Basically, you're plopped into the middle of the action, as the two main heros are dropped onto a mountaintop by a giant of some sort and from there you go down the mountain, explore a town near the bottom, make a deal with some pirates for a boat ride and then go into a dungeon that ends with a boss. It's unclear where in the game this is supposed to take place but it's implied to be fairly early and at one point there's a notable skip between the mountain and the town where presumably you'd spend a decent amount of time descending.
The demo does a pretty good job of introducing the combat system and mechanics, which you need to beat the boss at the end. But mostly it does a great job of showing off how much effort the devs put into the atmosphere and visuals that it feels like a sequel/spiritual successor to CT, and god damn does it work in that regard. It feels like the Dev team, like most people, played Crono Cross and were sad that it basically wasn't CT 2.0, so they made their own. Though it's also a prequel(apparently) to the Messenger, which I haven't gotten around to playing yet.
So good times, looking forward to playing it in August/September.
I'm going through all my hour long indies this weekend. Coincidentally it's two games from Finland.
Heal
Point and click puzzle game, 7 very short levels. You guide an old man left and right through a bunch of decrepit looking, budget horror sets as you stop to solve puzzles, which either open one of X locks or give you a clue to the next puzzle. It's very The Witness-y how the puzzles are contained within boards and monitors and do not correlate at all with he environment. There's a pretentious metaphor for struggling with dementia somewhere in there, with a Shattered Memories style twist at the end. Not that you're ever given much reason to care or learn about the "characters". The look of the game is by far its biggest asset/distinction. The puzzles themselves aren't all that clever.
Paradox Soul
A teeny tiny ugly and not very good metroidvania. No story, no atmosphere, just a bunch of samey-looking rooms where every enemy is a pain in the ass to deal with because you're forced into cover and spend forever exchanging gunfire until the other dude gets it. You only have 2 health in normal mode, which is ridiculous. There's no way to regain health except to die and respawn at the room entrance, so the whole game I'd rather just die as soon as I step into a room before even bothering to try breach it. Just bad design. The only moderately fun/challenging bits are a couple of boss fights.
Heal
Point and click puzzle game, 7 very short levels. You guide an old man left and right through a bunch of decrepit looking, budget horror sets as you stop to solve puzzles, which either open one of X locks or give you a clue to the next puzzle. It's very The Witness-y how the puzzles are contained within boards and monitors and do not correlate at all with he environment. There's a pretentious metaphor for struggling with dementia somewhere in there, with a Shattered Memories style twist at the end. Not that you're ever given much reason to care or learn about the "characters". The look of the game is by far its biggest asset/distinction. The puzzles themselves aren't all that clever.
Paradox Soul
A teeny tiny ugly and not very good metroidvania. No story, no atmosphere, just a bunch of samey-looking rooms where every enemy is a pain in the ass to deal with because you're forced into cover and spend forever exchanging gunfire until the other dude gets it. You only have 2 health in normal mode, which is ridiculous. There's no way to regain health except to die and respawn at the room entrance, so the whole game I'd rather just die as soon as I step into a room before even bothering to try breach it. Just bad design. The only moderately fun/challenging bits are a couple of boss fights.