What are you currently playing?

[BrawlMan]

Finished Ghost of Tsushima. Maybe it's because I dove straight into all the side quests, but the game HEAVILY loses steam in the 3rd act. Nothing new to throw at you in terms of enemies or techniques. The story is also incredibly weak. The finales to all the side character arcs fell flat, Lady Masako's especially.

I actually like how Noriko's and Masako's ended especially. The one with Jin's sensei, Ishikawa, has the weakest ending in terms of side quests.

For a sequel, I'd really like to see the combat become more intense, but more forgiving (the parry and dodge system need to feel MUCH better). The terror system needs to take notes from the Arkham series. It is NOT fun to have enemies just piss their pants and run away, I feel like I'm being robbed of fun combat. GoT takes a lot of inspiration from The Witcher 3, GoT 2 needs lean harder into that and have some sidequests worth a damn.

I will say for combat, all stances should be unlocked from the start with the sequel. They can't do that shit again like they did here. The terror system is only broken when fighting weak enemies. It takes them longer to get terrified if you're further into the game, or take down a lot of elite mooks or a mini boss. And even then, it will be 1-3 guys left running. It was fun shooting an arrow in their backs, or letting them run their tails between their legs. I never felt robbed of the combat. I wouldn't mind more levels of fear/terror in the sequel though. Parrying worked fine, but dodging could be iffy at times. What doesn't help matters is GoT does that thing GoW4&R where the enemies slide way further than they should to catch up to you. Seems like they didn't patch their part at all. I do know that playing the PS5 version smooths out dodging and makes both mechanics easier to pull off.

Played more of RE4Remake: Chainsaw Demo and did some sessions of SOR4. I noticed that they made scoring harder now or have a higher requirement in arcade mode. While at the same time, DotEmu made another patch to maintain your combo longer, so that's the trade off in this case. Other than adding alternate pallets for the retro characters or just making a color editor for all characters, there is not much left to update or add. SOR4 brought back the series staple co-op moves that were sorely lacking in its launch release and for nearly three years. I might have to get PS+ again, just so I can do some online co-op again. We all know people are playing online right now.

 

[BrawlMan]

Clash...uhhh, - something bland and mobile F2P game sounding wtf was it, I gotta triple check - ah yes... Artifacts of Chaos!
Having already forgotten the sub-title as I type, this is by the ZenoClash peeps, ACE team. Known for their distinctive art designs and melee first-person combat, this goes third person (mostly, but shh!) and veers into a genre we're increasingly familiar with, I bet you can guess what it is too.

Not three guess.

Not two.

Ok, not even one cause am just gonna fucking tell you, it's fucking darks souls of course it's fucking dark souls what else would it be, you gormless fool???

That said, it ain't so bad currently, taking into account the lower budget and price the series is known for. Animations are a tad stiff looking, but not everyone got a motion-capture studio so no issue there. Most attacks and movement do have a bit of a delay/build up tho, so it asks for a more steady and considered approach, with stamina being essentially your defence of which will leave you vulnerable to double-damage if run out.

Biggest concern has been the main playable character design...

View attachment 8246

Is like an alternative universe Homer Simpson who worked out, but swallowed a fancy exhaust pipe and fell into the Fly transporter machine. With his sketchpad.

Oh and they speak. With a voice. I'll leave it to everyone else to guess what that might sound like.

I forgot this existed or came out. I saw a trailer for it back in late 2021, and that was it. Is it fun to play?

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

I forgot this existed or came out. I saw a trailer for it back in late 2021, and that was it. Is it fun to play?

That's tricky to say for sure, I know you got passions for the genre of Platinum and Devil May Cry type gameplays - (suddenly realised I don't know what the genre is best referred to as nowadays) - and they tend to have much more precise, tactile movement and combat with often instant response times.

This may just be the beginning hobo stats for me at mo, but the combat and movement so far always is done with some kind of delay or preparation which lends to a sluggish feel, so I'm feeling quite cautious about whether thats something you're ok with. And whether that's the whole game or just weak muggins at this moment in time. It doesn't feel unfair, but it doesn't feel overly gratifying yet. They do have an interesting take on the death mechanic and corpse run at least: where there's a day-night cycle initiated as a bonfire option, where night always turns you into some woody stone skeleton thing with different enemies and access to other paths. But dying sends you to night from the last campfire, you gotta navigate and/or fight to your corpse and when you find it you resurrect exactly where you were with the same enemy deaths and tougher enemies' health wounds progress you had before death. So that should make boss runs theoretically less time wasting at least!

 

[BrawlMan]

That's tricky to say for sure, I know you got passions for the genre of Platinum and Devil May Cry type gameplays - (suddenly realised I don't know what the genre is best referred to as nowadays) - and they tend to have much more precise, tactile movement and combat with often instant response times.

Stylish Action. At the end of the day, it's just a fancy term for arcade style beat'em ups and hack n' slashers. The only difference is being and looking stylish. Usually.

This may just be the beginning hobo stats for me at mo, but the combat and movement so far always is done with some kind of delay or preparation which lends to a sluggish feel, so I'm feeling quite cautious about whether thats something you're ok with. And whether that's the whole game or just weak muggins at this moment in time. It doesn't feel unfair, but it doesn't feel overly gratifying yet. They do have an interesting take on the death mechanic and corpse run at least: where there's a day-nigbt cycle, where night always turns you into some ghost corpse thing with different enemies and access to other pathsd. But dying sends you to night from the last campfire, you gotta navigate and/or fight to your corpse and when you find it you resurrect exactly where you were with the same enemy damage and death progress you had before death. So that should make boss runs theoretically less time wasting at least!

I've been looking at reviews and seems interesting. I am curious to check the game out. I know it's from the same developers of Xeno Clash games, and Artifact of Chaos takes place in the same universe as those titles. I know it's on all consoles, aside from Switch, so I can play it on my PS4. I admit that I don't mind delayed hits on more grounded combat when done right, but I will take your warning with caution. Thank you.

 

[Dalisclock]

How old is/are the kid(s)? My 1st real gaming experience A.K. (After Kids) was Fallout 3 GOTY on PS3. The kids were old enough to have friends over (around 13) and didn't constantly need Dad: though they tell me this was kind of sad for them, why were they not the center of my every waking hour anymore . You do describe some of my problem (tired, too much messing around on the Internet).

She's 5(soon to be 6) and it's kind of that age where sometimes she can entertain herself for a while but sometimes she needs daddy to do stuff for her still. She's really sweet sometimes but other times she's kind of a lot and that's just how it is.

 

[gorfias]

She's 5(soon to be 6) and it's kind of that age where sometimes she can entertain herself for a while but sometimes she needs daddy to do stuff for her still. She's really sweet sometimes but other times she's kind of a lot and that's just how it is.

At that age, things like Blues Clues was high drama for me. Finished Pokemon Snap with the boy. Lion King on SNES was huge. Did play "Wheel of Fortune" with the kids when my daughter was around 4 and she won $1,500 in one round, looked at me with big innocent eyes and asked, "Daddy? When will they send me my money?" Those girls? They start young man. Enjoy these times, they pass quickly.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Finally completed Pizza Tower 101%. Took about 23 hours of game time in total, according to Steam. Seriously, I can't say enough good things about this game. If you've ever loved a 2D platformer before, you owe it to yourself to check Pizza Tower out.

I'll probably get back to Hi-Fi Rush now.

 

[Bedinsis]

Finished the third trial of the first Danganronpa game.

It was a quite elaborate case but the true culprit said or did something even before the trial itself started that made me immediately suspect them. With this knowledge in the back of my head, I managed to construct the overall outline of the case relatively quickly.

I'm gonna speculate what the overall plot of the game is in the spoilers.

Spoiler: speculation about the plot

So the school is locked up with metal plates over all the windows and the only means of escaping is via getting away with murders. I've also managed to find two pictures of students that have already died in the school without metal plates over the windows.

I think this school is a mental construct of some kind. All the students went to school as normal, then something happened that makes someone hallucinate the whole scenario, forever trapped with their friends at a common location. I'm thinking it's the girl with white hair, Kyoko, who has had a near-death experience and this is her coma-fantasy. I've spent a lot of Free Time with her and I like her (she's clever and not mean or murderous so far) so maybe that's why I'm making her central to this speculation.

Funniest moment so far was when Celeste Ludenberg's real name was revealed as a regular Japanese name and she claimed she would never have such a ridiculous name. Gee, Celeste, as opposed to calling yourself Celeste Ludenberg in a Japanese setting? That is not ridiculous?

Not helped by "luder" in Swedish meaning "whore" so her surname is almost "mountain of whore".

 

[CastletonSnob]

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

 

[Gergar12]

War Thunder is so easy when you're playing Russia in the ground mode. Those T-34s and KV-1s hit like a truck and I am getting constant deflects.

 

[BrawlMan]

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza And The Lost Demon (Demo) - I finished the demo. You can do the first two chapters, and a little of the third before the demo ends. It saves your progress, so when you download or install the full game, you can go right where you left off. I love the visuals and the game is like a cross between Okami and ICO. Left stick controls Cereza; right stick controls "Cheshire". Cereza can hold enemies with her magic, while Chesh can wallop on them. There's a bigger emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving. Combat is there, but not the main draw. That said, it feels highly polished works.

I am loving the gameplay flow so far, and this what Travis Strikes Again, if we're talking isometric spin-off titles to hack n slash games. I cannot wait to pick this up on Friday and continue onwards in Chapter 3.

 

[Bedinsis]

Have finished through the fifth trial of the first Danganronpa game. Will make my predictions in the spoiler.

Spoiler: danganronpa spoilers

So, as things turn out, the class trial ends with our hero, Makoto, sentenced to death. Only through earlier shenanigans of an AI did he manage to survive, in the garbage chute. Kyoko arrived with food and to discuss the situation.

She made it clear that whoever is arranging the whole affair is one of the students present, and this was a move of desperation on their part.

It's gotta be Byakuya, right?

Putting aside that he has had his nose in the air for the entire game and that he has shown himself only thinking of it in terms of a game and never really expressed any concern for his fellow students and in fact has treated them as crap, he showed the initiative in basically all of the last scenario that left the 16th student dead. It is as if he was the shepherd that guided all the lambs to the right fold. I mean, he gathered the students to examine the Monokuma doll, he gave the orders to make Genocide Jill find the body, he gave the orders to Makoto to put out the fire, he made sure everybody save Makoto had an alibi by making sure they went to the toilets in pairs, and he only allowed Makoto entry to Kyoto's room on the condition that he also was part of it. That's a degree of direction that could be explained by his personality but at this stage I suspect that is a mere cover.

Unless they are going to pull the rug out from under me completely I don't see how it could be anybody else. Hina is too nice, Kyoto is literally subverting the Mastermind's intentions, not-Shaggy doesn't seem smart enough, Genocide Jill... is too crazy but would be my second choice, Makoto is the viewpoint character.

Genocide Jill would work if we imagine that her fawning over Byakuya is faked, and is just meant to keep him, who is clever, from paying too much attention to someone who has reason to spy on him, since he might upend her plans as a Mastermind. But even so: nah.

I wonder why the announcement that "a body had been found" only occurred once they entered the data center, since an earlier case was dependent on two bodies being found simultaneously and the announcement would mean they would mistake one corpse for the other, even though one was still alive. But I suspect it can be accounted for by Monokuma being taken out of commission at the time.

I was legit sad at Sakura's trial. I like Sakura a great deal now.

Anyway: Monokuma claimed this is all being broadcast all over the world, ala some Big Brother scenario. Does not sound implausible given the setting.

 

[Baffle]

Stray. I'm not sure if I'm enjoying this game (I mostly seem to have to press X a lot) but I'm emotionally obliged to reunite this guy with his little buddies.

This is a game designed almost exclusively around the premise of getting people who have cats to say 'My cat does that too!'. My cat actually does do that too though.

 

[Worgen]

Finished the RE4 remake demo. It was pretty damn cool and run really nicely with Raytracing on high. I really liked how the guns felt, the shotgun felt so nice and powerful, reminded me of shooting a 10 gauge way back when. I also really liked how you could parry with the knife. The graphics were great, but the environment felt a little try hard, like less like a rundown village and more a horror theme park village.

Also been playing a lot of the Last Spell. It really scratches that Xcom itch of one more fight to try out your new skills and weapons etc. It's turn based but doesn't play like Xcom, just scratches a similar itch. Your heroes defend a town/magic portal thing from a huge horde of monsters. Your heroes are much much more powerful then the monsters and can attack multiple times a turn with abilities that will mow down multiple enemies, but there are so many that its still hard. I'm still only on like the 2nd... or third if you count the tutorial, town.

 

[BrawlMan]

Need for Speed Nitro (WII) - My God, why didn't I play this game sooner? It was somewhat on my radar only to later keep forgetting about it. This a fun ass, go nuts, arcade racer that goes for a street/hip-hop and Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic that fits the game and the console it's on. This basically the better version of Heat and Unbound. This game came out in 2009. You race in exotic foreign places such as Madrid, Cairo, Rio De Genaro, etc. Instead of the usual American cities or states. There are some car customization options, but limited. You can customize the colors and even graffiti trail of your car. The graffiti trail shows up whenever you're in the lead. It gives the game an extra unique identity of its own, no other NFS game has replicated.

You have racing, drift challenges, speed traps, elimination, drag racing, and time trials. This games functions like a modified version of Most Wanted (2005) and Carbon, but without the open world. Fine by me. Drifting is easier to pull off, but there are plenty of challenges that come with it depending on the type of course or event. Cops aren't as aggressive as they were in Most Wanted (2005) or later in Hot Pursuit (2010), but they are no push overs. The power up selection is limited in races or elimination challenges. You either get car repair or can get the police badge which lowers your wanted level and sends to either the racer ahead of you, or the lead racer.

EA, can you please make an HD port for this game and put on digital stores for $14.99? It won't cost you a damn thing. The game could use some online play and it's better than your recent output of NFS games right now. BTW, EA Montreal did this game, and developers involved did a great job! Sucks that they're no more and their last game was Army of Two: The Cartel. To end on a more positive note: I'll be going back to this sooner, rather than later. This one of the best racing games on Wii. Hell, this is arguably the best racing game on Wii!

 

[meiam]

Also been playing a lot of the Last Spell. It really scratches that Xcom itch of one more fight to try out your new skills and weapons etc. It's turn based but doesn't play like Xcom, just scratches a similar itch. Your heroes defend a town/magic portal thing from a huge horde of monsters. Your heroes are much much more powerful then the monsters and can attack multiple times a turn with abilities that will mow down multiple enemies, but there are so many that its still hard. I'm still only on like the 2nd... or third if you count the tutorial, town.

It's really fun, but it does get pretty repetitive over time. I think the weapon variety was supposed to be what would prevent the boredom from settling in to much, but weapon aren't very well balance (although I haven't played V 1.0) and since you need to plan build well in advance you usually just stick to one weapon at the start of a run and don't change it. I would have liked more variety in stages.

 

[wings012]

I am putting off Atomic Heart, I can't seem to get into it. The open world with its infinite enemies is already insufferable enough but they also lock upgrades behind stupid puzzle-platforming dungeons. And puzzle-platforming is basically why I stopped playing Doom Eternal which is a far more competent shooter.

Anyway I hopped back into Halo Infinite for Season 3. Actually managed to clear the event challenges without popping a blood vessel. Not sure if they redesigned the challenges completely to be less obnoxious or if I got lucky, hope it is the former. Escalation Slayer is pretty fun and I like the new 4v4 maps. Should probably try to find fun stuff to play in the customs browser.

 

[Drathnoxis]

The Stick of Truth. First contact a bit rough but turns out addictive. I like the style of South Park, visually and sounds-wise. The humour is annoyingly stupid at times (yes, haha, alien anal probe, got it, haha, no yes already got it the first time) and its worldview even worse (haha al gore still harping about his climate change bullshit lol). It's still a pleasant experience. I enjoy the tone and the gameplay. I just wish it was more centered on the kid's high stake play-pretend ("good times with weapons" was one of my favorite episodes), and less on genuine events in the adult town (aliens, nazi zombie invasion, etc).

Also I hadn't realise how old South Park is. Revisiting it in this game suddenly makes me measure how much time has passed since I've been watching it. And I can't believe it's still running.

Ok, why is everybody playing The Stick of Truth all of a sudden? It's been out for 9 years at this point but you're the third person here to play it in the last month.

 

[BrawlMan]

Ok, why is everybody playing The Stick of Truth all of a sudden? It's been out for 9 years at this point but you're the third person here to play it in the last month.

Dude, there were a whole bunch of people playing Metal Gear Rising either again, and hadn't played it years, or people who never played it before at all between 2020 and now on the 10th anniversary. This is not a new phenomenon and plenty of other old games get a spike in popularity again after 5-10+ years. My older brother was playing Stick of Truth and Fractured, But Whole 3 weeks ago.

 

[Worgen]

It's really fun, but it does get pretty repetitive over time. I think the weapon variety was supposed to be what would prevent the boredom from settling in to much, but weapon aren't very well balance (although I haven't played V 1.0) and since you need to plan build well in advance you usually just stick to one weapon at the start of a run and don't change it. I would have liked more variety in stages.

I don't know how it was in early access but it kinda feels like the game wants you to mix up weapons on your heroes. I've gotten heroes that seem better suited for stuff they don't have and there are perks that give pretty big bonuses for doing 2 different attack types on an enemy. Right now I'm still on the phase of sticking to a weapon type because of stubborness but it really does feel like playing that way is a mistake.