What are you currently playing?

[NerfedFalcon]

Finally got back of God of War 4 after a fairly long hiatus. I'm still progressing through it, though barely at a rate of more than an hour or two hours a week. Anyway, this time I managed to get to the top of the mountain, and it turns out that it isn't actually the mountain, but there's a man there who knows where we need to go and how to get there.

 

[mirbrownbread]

Just started Dying Light: Definitive Edition on a Switch Lite!

I've read so many glowing reviews over the years about this game and its expansions that I can't help myself but go in with high expectations. I've only passed the tutorial thus far, but yeah, it definitely "clicks" with me!

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Just started Dying Light: Definitive Edition on a Switch Lite!

I've read so many glowing reviews over the years about this game and its expansions that I can't help myself but go in with high expectations. I've only passed the tutorial thus far, but yeah, it definitely "clicks" with me!

I remember a lot of critics liked it, but audiences didn't go for it as much. Personally, I have a soft spot for the original Mirror's Edge and it translated pretty well to Dying Light, so I enjoyed it even though I never finished it. Hopefully it stays enjoyable for you.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Garden Story

A cutesy indy where you're caring for a garden town of anthropomorphic fruit and you're also a fruit. It's going around fighting enemies and doing Stardew Valley type tasks but where SV looked to me like a SNES game this one looks like a NES game, so yeah, super-indy vibes. Music is great as it seems to be in every indy game (srsly, I think indy game devs are just really composers and piano players at this point) and everything looks cute.
But I likely won't be going back to this because it's a lot of walking back and forth and combat, and the combat is deliberately slow. I will admit that my standards for combat have been raised and I just don't have patience for "swing weapon, walk away, walk back, swing weapon" any more.

Still if you have Gamepass and are in the mood for a "thing to do with your hands while listening to podcasts" or "mellow vibes" type of game, you could do a lot worse.

 

[bluegate]

Finally got back of God of War 4 after a fairly long hiatus. I'm still progressing through it, though barely at a rate of more than an hour or two hours a week. Anyway, this time I managed to get to the top of the mountain, and it turns out that it isn't actually the mountain, but there's a man there who knows where we need to go and how to get there.

The fun's only just beginning now, laddy.

Would have been an awfully short game otherwise, wouldn't it?

 

[meiam]

I remember a lot of critics liked it, but audiences didn't go for it as much. Personally, I have a soft spot for the original Mirror's Edge and it translated pretty well to Dying Light, so I enjoyed it even though I never finished it. Hopefully it stays enjoyable for you.

Yeah the reception at the time was pretty much 7/10, okay game but nothing special. There was definitely more of a zombie fatigue at the time too.

I'd say if you're going in with high expectation you'll be very disappointment. It doesn't have the satirical edge of a dead rising or the sligthly unique (at the time) location of dead island. The story starts interesting but devolve into usual boring stuff, the parkour is nice, but pretty quickly you get a grappling hook that trivialize it iirc. Otherwise its a pretty vanilla open world zombie game.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Chipping away at Witcher 3. Idk if the update fucked with my settings or what, but I don’t recall the game feeling this janky before. Like, I did change the setting for precision pointing and hardware cursor based on Steam user feedback, but even with sensitivity way down it still feels like the camera has whiplash. Coupling that with the fact Geralt’s movement feels like he’s both drunk and coked up unless you just toggle to “walk” and it was kinda giving me a headache. Maybe now that I’m done with that sluice gate madness with the underwater swimming it’ll be a bit better.

Anyways, just got to another Ciri part, and aside from these playable sections being too bare bones and infrequent to really make much of an impact or feel justified, it makes me think that they already had planned to reboot or continue this series with her as a main character. They already kinda laid the groundwork at least.

 

[EvilRoy]

I picked up Cassette Beasts, basically on a whim. I've been off videogames due to some work stress and I saw this thing that's basically pokemon crossed with digimon and I decided that was enough for me. I like the comfortable banality of pokemon games of ages past and I figured a legal PC version is worth a try.

It's interesting. Like Digimon you have a lot more direct connection with the battling monster - it's actually just you transformed. Like pokemon you have a team in your backpack to bust out. Unlike either, because it's actually just you fighting there are two life bars - yours and the cassettes. So if you get your ass beat too hard as a floating sheep ghost you get overdamage that injures the human below. You can keep fighting but too many of those and the human goes down, then that's all, even if you have more cassettes you are out.

The setting is very digimon season 1. That's ok, it just started me that someone would plumb that particular well. It works though and lends itself to a dynamic and unpredictable world. Recognizable things show up right beside alien things and it creates a neat feeling that you really won't know what's coming next. Sure, it's gonna be a desert because they told me so, but is it a glass desert or a cake desert or a dune desert with English police stations and firm but friendly constable zombies patrolling. Who knows.

The fucking elemental system is messing with me pretty hard. It's elemental rock paper scissors like pokemon but imagine you were playing with a guy who insists on using "Spock" or "dynamite" or "black magic" hand symbols. So on top of standard you also have astral that is empowered by standard elements but fucked up by unnatural elements like plastic or radiation. And you can get in dual type situations where you are simultaneously disrupting and empowering. Grass is "uprooted" by wind, plastic is "buried" by earth. And unlike pokemon the effects aren't obvious - plastic doesn't take extra damage from earth, it loses dodge and speed. The game is cool about it and usually tells you but it's complex.

I could say more but meh. It's fun and weird. I'll report back on whether it pissed me off when I'm further along.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

First patch for PC and consoles been released for Jedi Survivor, consoles were later but tested a bit and does initially appear smoother on performance mode. Tho am not an expert in the technical details and am only on first open planet area currently, so have yet to stress test. Forgot how chunky they make the lightsaber parry/reflect of enemy laser shots' feedback feel: it's got satisfying weight for something that's just light magic bouncing off light magic. More games using magic combat could learn from these techniques!

Just started Dying Light: Definitive Edition on a Switch Lite!



I've read so many glowing reviews over the years about this game and its expansions that I can't help myself but go in with high expectations. I've only passed the tutorial thus far, but yeah, it definitely "clicks" with me!

Huh, I thought it was critics who were kinda meh - or slightly above meh - on it but the community it built from providing so much post-release support and content is what helped grow its reputation. That's kinda how I got hooked in.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Jedi Survivor

The way this game does its cutscenes is kinda stupid and weird. It wants to do the usual cinematic thing games do now with the seemless transition from gameplay to cutscene and vice versa, but not only does it stutter like crazy everytime it transtions, it feels the need to throw up letterboxing eventhough the gameplay itself is 16:9, AND if you're playing on performance mode (which most people will be) it changes the framerate to 30. Everytime you go from gameplay to cutscene and cutscene to gameplay it's like the game is tripping on its own shoelaces.

 

[Dalisclock]

Finally got back of God of War 4 after a fairly long hiatus. I'm still progressing through it, though barely at a rate of more than an hour or two hours a week. Anyway, this time I managed to get to the top of the mountain, and it turns out that it isn't actually the mountain, but there's a man there who knows where we need to go and how to get there.

That sound you hear is the game moving the goalposts. Get used to it.

Don't get me wrong, it's a fun game and I enjoyed it, but the writers really, really liked giving you goals that seem simple and then moving the goals further and further away, which arguably messes up the sense of progression after the 3rd/4th time they do it.

 

[Piscian]

I beat Yakuza: Like a Dragon last week. I don't think I have anything really to say about the game that's worth discussing. It was fine, like not game of the year and not something I'm gonna think back fondly on a year from now. I will say I enjoyed the game consistently from beginning to end. I do have a few complaints.

1. The primary protagonists endless positivity and ignorance is only occasionally charming, but becomes tiresome and unrealistic over time. The yakuza games tend to have a hardboiled story and atmosphere and then the side stories can be goofy. This game tried to have a serious story, but also was pretty nonstop comedy which felt like it undercut it to the point where I just wasn't all that interested in the main story because it felt as though it just didn't matter.
2. There's a lengthy sidequest of fighting every bad guy type in the game as part of the hero for hire quests, but it's gated off where only one at a time unlocks so you are forced to spend a great deal of time searching out and fighting enemies you've already fought numerous times.
3. The weapon progression system was confusing and tiresome. You would have to spend endless time and resources upgrading your weapons without looking online for specific guides to make the right choices.
4. I find myself again disappointed by the mini-games. I continue to hold the Yazuka 0 minigames above all. Specifically the two main side-story minigames in yakuza 0 had actual stories that were interesting and had a sense of progression. Here both the main side-quests in YLAD the real estate and Kart racing were pretty limited. The real estate has a more entertaining story, but the gameplay loop is repetitive. The Kart racing is fun, but theres no real story and it gets boring pretty quick.
5. The Job system is neat, but since only a few skills and stats migrate with your character and there's no story benefit to them outside of just selecting them once. I lost interest in them before finishing. I'd do just enough to make sure a couple of my people had healing abilities and a variety of attack types.
6. Shogi sucks.

Where is it on scale? Probably like a step below Persona 5. 7.5/10


This last week I started Jedi: fallen Order. I never got around to this one, but with the new coming out I figured I'd finally dig into it. The short answer is that I like it, the long answer is that I like it despite how the combat is bad AI and pure cheese and that the exploration is buggy as fuck. ON PS5 if you use rest mode, when you come out the cutscene dialog is out of sync which is frustrating as fuck. The exploration is quite fun though I wish interactable objects were highlighted better. So much of the game is trial and error "Oh I died guess this is not the right way" "Oh bad guy just blipped into existence and killed me, guess I'll respawn and be prepared for it this time." or "Oh my light saber went right through him, but hes mid-combo so I thats just rules he gets to kill me anyway".

I just hope they QA'd survivor a little better than this one.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Jedi Survivor

Fuck that fucking frog boss on the first planet. It's obviously there as a reference to the frog boss in the previous game (also on the first planet), but Respawn saw fit to make the one in Survivor 20 times more fucking brutal. However, the loot you receive after beating him actually kinda makes it worth it. Nice troll Respawn.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

That sound you hear is the game moving the goalposts. Get used to it.

Don't get me wrong, it's a fun game and I enjoyed it, but the writers really, really liked giving you goals that seem simple and then moving the goals further and further away, which arguably messes up the sense of progression after the 3rd/4th time they do it.

Not sure if you’ve played Ragnarok yet, but I was surprised by how short it felt in contrast to 2018, especially considering it’s supposed to be the bigger game. Maybe this had something to do with it.

 

[Dalisclock]

Not sure if you’ve played Ragnarok yet, but I was surprised by how short it felt in contrast to 2018, especially considering it’s supposed to be the bigger game. Maybe this had something to do with it.

I have not. I got it from Crimmas and I do intend to play it this year but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I am kinda glad to hear this isn't really a problem in the 2nd game.

I'm not saying every game/story needs to have a "Accomplish goal A. B, C, D, etc" to the end progression, but it also helps to show some kind of progression overtime towards the overall goal, because presenting you with what initially seems like an easy goal and making you go through 7 layers of hell and then 20 sidetrrips to purgatory, each of which is presented as a further surprise complication can get irritating real fast.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Don't get me wrong, it's a fun game and I enjoyed it, but the writers really, really liked giving you goals that seem simple and then moving the goals further and further away, which arguably messes up the sense of progression after the 3rd/4th time they do it.

The essence of the road trip story, as I understand it, is that getting from point A to point B is never as simple as it sounds. The story's about the stuff that happens along the way, so having stuff happen along the way isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I have not. I got it from Crimmas and I do intend to play it this year but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I am kinda glad to hear this isn't really a problem in the 2nd game.

I'm not saying every game/story needs to have a "Accomplish goal A. B, C, D, etc" to the end progression, but it also helps to show some kind of progression overtime towards the overall goal, because presenting you with what initially seems like an easy goal and making you go through 7 layers of hell and then 20 sidetrrips to purgatory, each of which is presented as a further surprise complication can get irritating real fast.

You know what might’ve helped now that I think of it…

Variety.

Really, the game did a better job of mixing things up, in terms of enemy encounters, including bosses, locales, objectives, etc., and it felt like they took a cue from the classic games more streamlined progression model, while still retaining the wide linear approach. You’re still able to fast travel to different areas for quests and such, but there really felt like little need to during the main story. Plus, the supporting characters were more compelling, which never hurts for a story-driven game.

 

[meiam]

I started god of war 4 at the highest difficulty and it has the usual high difficulty problem of boss literally being the easiest fight in the game. Group of random enemy are incredibly scary cause they hit fast, swarm you and every attack takes out 2/3 of you health, especially the small weak enemy, I think wolf might be some of the most dangerous enemy in the game. But bosses, w/e, they're slow and easy to dodge and there's only one of them so you can easily strafe around them without fear of getting hit from behind. Plus they have checkpoint throughout the fight, so you don't have to redo everything.

Still having fun progressing very slowly, I do sometime have to finish fight by just repeatedly throwing the axe at the enemy, its cowardly but I don't want to fail at the last minute and have to redo the full 10 minutes fights.

 

[Dalisclock]

The essence of the road trip story, as I understand it, is that getting from point A to point B is never as simple as it sounds. The story's about the stuff that happens along the way, so having stuff happen along the way isn't necessarily a bad thing.

In principle, I agree. And again, I liked GOW18. I just felt the plots continual throwing obstacles in front of you that the top of the moutain was always just a bit further away felt like it got a bit much after a while.

It's ultimately a small complaint, honestly, driven by my stupid brain which is obsessed with narrative and such. I very much feel like my time in the game was worth it and the story and character moments hit nicely, so overall successful IMHO.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Owlboy

Cute metroidvania from Norway devs D-Pad. This puts me in a good mood. You fly around floating islands, the controls are simple and fun, everyone around town is chipper but with a bit of a nasty streak, the colors are all vibrant blue-greens, the retro look and animation are nice and crunchy, the chiptune music reminds me of Route 4 in Pokemon Blue... all very nice. Sometimes the good vibes win you over.