What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Well, I have it under "distant possibilities" which might as well translate as "if its dirt cheap on sale and/or free"/
For my own two cents, they're better off getting away from Jedi because every game with Jedi has managed to feel somehow clunky in one way or another. They always have to scale them back somehow.
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I replayed JK/JA when the recent re-releases came out a year or two ago. Taking the nostalgia goggles off they also pretty evidently have the clunk problem.Not Jedi Academy.
The power level a lightsaber wielding Jedi is at is effectively impossible to design a game with any sense of difficulty or progression around without a) having an insanely contrived amount of other Jedi/Sith around to fight, or b) an insane amount of powerful fantasy-esque monsters to fight (an option that while probably possible, is generally outside the human and human-like "groundedness" for lack of a better term, that Star Wars usually hangs out in.
Or Option C, which has been the go-to for star wars games for like 30 years now. Either putting in some new weird armour material or other handwave nonsense, or just outright never explaining why various Stormtroopers/Droids/Smugglers/etc are suddenly resistant to the Force and/or can tank lightsaber hits.
Absent
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But having to progressively learn to wield it solves part of that. After all, look at that dork with his blindfold helmet thingy, getting constantly shocked by that hovering ball...
COVID was only the partial reason. The main reason was everyone got tired of the bad skits, useless celebrity cameos, the circle jerking, the overly long presentations, and unfunny jokes most speakers on stage tried doing. People just want to see games and actual honest to fucking God gameplay! So most developers, publishers, and other game makers realized they can stream their own shows any time they wanted, and didn't need a constant circle jerk of blowing each other and patting on the back.
Did a Mania run of Axel in SOR4 tonight. Took me an 1:24:12. The fastest I ever gotten on Mania.
Still Breath of the Wild. So horses are kind of useless. My horse fell off a bridge on my way to Hateno Village and I thought, "ok, well, no big deal, I'll just summon it again at the next stable I find." That was like 8 hours ago and I haven't found another stable. It's still sitting in a river. You should just be able to whistle your horse to you wherever you are, because you spend so much time climbing and gliding around you are inevitably going to become separated from it and always needed to backtrack to it is pointless.
That is like top of my list of "games I wish I could get into."A saw that Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen was kike $5 for the Switch, so I'm guessing I'm revisiting that one now
I tried to start it twice and I just kept feeling like it was too "old" for me.. too janky and grindy and confusing. Even though I have played other games from that era. I dunno... maybe I don't have patience for RPG's like that any more. Either way, it's the big western RPG missing from my roster of played games in that genre (which includes Dragon Age Origins and Inquisition, Skyrim, and the Witcher series).
It was janky at the time, nothing to do with age. It's just part of the charm.
Rogue Legacy 2.
Whoa this is a different beast entirely!
No I-frames in the dodge yet though. Hoping is not a permanent issue. Couldn't get far into first game cos the upside down characters weren't helping with weird psychological quirks at the time. Might just resort to suiciding the character this time round to skip them if they're there.
Whoa this is a different beast entirely!
No I-frames in the dodge yet though. Hoping is not a permanent issue. Couldn't get far into first game cos the upside down characters weren't helping with weird psychological quirks at the time. Might just resort to suiciding the character this time round to skip them if they're there.
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Definitely feels like they toned it down with the joke characters this time. I still avoid certain classes like the plague but so far I haven't really been forced into a horrible run that felt doomed from the start. I still don't quite understand what the hell is "resolve" though.
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Been messing around with demos during the Next Fest thing since there are a ton of demos.
Lies of P. Kind of a neat game that really wants to be Darksouls or Blooodborne. Has some cool visuals and plays pretty well. Not sure I would get it when it comes out, probably not, but might on sale even though there has only been one 3d soulslike that I enjoyed. Darksiders 3.
En Garde! This one was a big surprise, I liked the look but I wasn't sure about the rest, but its fucken charming as hell. Its like your playing part of a stage play with over the top characters who are aware of what they are in and totally hamming it up. It looks great with a unique cartoony aesthetic. It plays pretty well too, a little stiff but not enough to mess things up. Give this one a shot.
Laika: Aged through Blood. This one is weird. Its a metroidvania but the hook is that your on a motorcycle for the whole thing so your movement is different from any other side scroller. You use your bike to block/reflect attacks, you have a gun, you need to do flips to recharge your abilities or reload your gun. It plays well, just weird. The story is dark as fuck, about a conflict between birds and coyotes and the birds are an obvious analog for the US... probably. Its also kinda excessively bloody, starts with your brother or cousin or something strung up by his intestines. Its interesting... but Im not sure about it.
Goodbye Volcano High. This one is interesting. Its got a semi great setup. Play an anthro dino who will soon graduate highschool but a meteor is detected entering the solar system and there is a decent chance of planet hit. So you take existing teenage angst and add global destruction to it. I didn't play much but it seems like a visual novel but with really high production values. Its got decent voice acting and writing and one of the best phone chat things Ive seen in a game, granted I haven't seen many. If it wasn't coming out around when a ton of other game I want are coming out I would grab it, as it is, I'm sure I will some day.
Another Space Opera. This one surprised me, its kind of a cinematic platformer like out of this world, but with more responsive controls and more gunfire. Its got really nice pixel graphics, kinda weird but ok voice acting and it plays well. Another to add high on the list.
Captain Wayne Vacation Desperation. Its a GZdoom game and its got a cool look but doesn't seem like there is much else there. Its fine.
Girl Genius Adventures in Castle Heterodyne. Another surprise, I collect the Girl Genius comics and I had no idea it was getting a game. The point they decided it takes place is kinda in the middle of the first series of graphic novels and is a good place for a game, not many other time periods in the comic you can use. The graphics are... fine, a bit bland, but the character portraits are straight from the comic artists. The writing is good, the gameplay is stiff and a bit standard for a 3d platform adventure game, but it works and even with it kinda looking bland, its got a charm to it. I'm not sure how well the game will inform someone who hasn't read the comics about the story though, based on the demo, not at all, but they might add more preamble. They would kinda have to since there is a lot that happens before where the game starts. Anyway, keeping an eye on it.
Rasant. A really cool looking shootem up. Plays kinda bad, seems to only be a time attack type game. Not interested.
Swarm Survivor. Horror twin stick shooter roguelite. Not sure about the roguelite part of it but the twin stick shooter/horror parts are neat.
ARKOS. FPS but with a heretic/hexen feel done in voxels. Plays well, looks good. Eye kept on.
Lies of P. Kind of a neat game that really wants to be Darksouls or Blooodborne. Has some cool visuals and plays pretty well. Not sure I would get it when it comes out, probably not, but might on sale even though there has only been one 3d soulslike that I enjoyed. Darksiders 3.
En Garde! This one was a big surprise, I liked the look but I wasn't sure about the rest, but its fucken charming as hell. Its like your playing part of a stage play with over the top characters who are aware of what they are in and totally hamming it up. It looks great with a unique cartoony aesthetic. It plays pretty well too, a little stiff but not enough to mess things up. Give this one a shot.
Laika: Aged through Blood. This one is weird. Its a metroidvania but the hook is that your on a motorcycle for the whole thing so your movement is different from any other side scroller. You use your bike to block/reflect attacks, you have a gun, you need to do flips to recharge your abilities or reload your gun. It plays well, just weird. The story is dark as fuck, about a conflict between birds and coyotes and the birds are an obvious analog for the US... probably. Its also kinda excessively bloody, starts with your brother or cousin or something strung up by his intestines. Its interesting... but Im not sure about it.
Goodbye Volcano High. This one is interesting. Its got a semi great setup. Play an anthro dino who will soon graduate highschool but a meteor is detected entering the solar system and there is a decent chance of planet hit. So you take existing teenage angst and add global destruction to it. I didn't play much but it seems like a visual novel but with really high production values. Its got decent voice acting and writing and one of the best phone chat things Ive seen in a game, granted I haven't seen many. If it wasn't coming out around when a ton of other game I want are coming out I would grab it, as it is, I'm sure I will some day.
Another Space Opera. This one surprised me, its kind of a cinematic platformer like out of this world, but with more responsive controls and more gunfire. Its got really nice pixel graphics, kinda weird but ok voice acting and it plays well. Another to add high on the list.
Captain Wayne Vacation Desperation. Its a GZdoom game and its got a cool look but doesn't seem like there is much else there. Its fine.
Girl Genius Adventures in Castle Heterodyne. Another surprise, I collect the Girl Genius comics and I had no idea it was getting a game. The point they decided it takes place is kinda in the middle of the first series of graphic novels and is a good place for a game, not many other time periods in the comic you can use. The graphics are... fine, a bit bland, but the character portraits are straight from the comic artists. The writing is good, the gameplay is stiff and a bit standard for a 3d platform adventure game, but it works and even with it kinda looking bland, its got a charm to it. I'm not sure how well the game will inform someone who hasn't read the comics about the story though, based on the demo, not at all, but they might add more preamble. They would kinda have to since there is a lot that happens before where the game starts. Anyway, keeping an eye on it.
Rasant. A really cool looking shootem up. Plays kinda bad, seems to only be a time attack type game. Not interested.
Swarm Survivor. Horror twin stick shooter roguelite. Not sure about the roguelite part of it but the twin stick shooter/horror parts are neat.
ARKOS. FPS but with a heretic/hexen feel done in voxels. Plays well, looks good. Eye kept on.
Absent
And twice is the only way to live.
- Jan 25, 2023
- 1,594
- 1,557
- 118
- Country
- Switzerland
- Gender
- The boring one
Okay. Eyes on that one. Lighthearted cloak&dagger is always welcome (that's why I'm so fond of the Moore/Connery era as opposed to the Craig one).
Did you like Conan Exciles? I think I got it from PS+ but never gave it a chance.
I'd put it mostly on the Internet. We just don't need E3 anymore. Same goes for movie review TV shows like Siskel and Ebert. I can see all the trailers and movie clips I want on my PC.
I played some racing games on the OG Xbox One on a 55" 1080p LED TV and had some fun comparing, contrasting.
Forza Horizon: The visuals in the game have aged, but still fun to play.
Burnout Paradise City HD: game looks reasonably pretty even today. I didn't realize a bundle I must have gotten years ago for $5 came with a ton of extras, including what is essentially Back to the Future's time machine. I pressed something right and the car's wheels folded up and I was hovering.
Forza Horizon 4: Managed to buy a couple of cars. One of the addicting aspects of these games.
I've got 5 on Disc but that was in another room and I was too lazy to go get it.
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Resolve is used to purchase relics during a run. Each relic room has a choice of one or two relics, though you don't have to take either of them. Each relic comes in a different rarity, indicating its power level, but also its Resolve cost. Resolve can be gained from upgrades at the manor, or from equipping less heavy gear at the Blacksmith; heavy loadouts give you more power at the start of a run, but less flexibility in what relics you can take.
Besides the hard cap, since you can't take a relic if your Resolve is lower than its cost, there's also a soft cap; below 100 Resolve, your maximum HP is lowered to the same percentage as the amount you have left - say you had 110 Resolve and bought a relic for 35, would leave you with 75 Resolve, therefore only 75% of your max HP. This can still be viable if your current health is low enough, since losing max HP cuts into your 'missing' HP first.
tl;dr: Spend Resolve to buy relics, start with more Resolve by equipping less or worse gear at the Blacksmith. Balance initial power against future flexibility, and the loss of max (recoverable) HP against greater output for your remaining life.