What are you currently playing?

[BrawlMan]

I mean, generic zombie tropes be generic. And (mildy and/or barely) unique take on mushrooms aside, TLoU wasn't exactly stepping outside the wheelhouse there.

Which is why TLoU is overrated and over hyped as fuck. I give credit where credit is due on the voice acting, cinematography, and all that jazz, but it's just another overly dark, zombie shooter, from the 7th generation, and the franchise never left that era. I'll say it again: give me Resident Evil and House of the Dead any day of the week over TLoU.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I, on the other hand, adore The Last of Us and find Resident Evil games tedious.
Opinions are fun

 

[BrawlMan]

I, on the other hand, adore The Last of Us and find Resident Evil games tedious.

Depends on which one. Look, I'll play TLOU over RE0, RE6, Code Veronica, the first Gun Survivor, and all of the bad spin-offs on 7th generation consoles, but that is about it. Those are true tedium. Otherwise, I'll take all of those titles any day of the week over TLOU2. Those have some form of humanity, or can at least have some modicum fun. TLOU2 does not. I will not waste 14 hours of boring pain and misery, and forced walking section wasting my time. You have fun with that. I'll play an actual video game that is not afraid of what is, and respect the intelligence of its audience and casual gamers or non-gamers alike.

 

[sXeth]

TLoU (1) I'll give some credit to the acting and character drama. But the pacing and actual gameplay was mind-numbingly slow and drawn out.

Resident Evil games just never could quite seem to figure out if they wanted to be a joke or not. And the majority of the ones I have played controlled like trash and were repetitive spam fests of the same enemy (even if the enemy was theoretically meant to be a unique individual)

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Somewhere between 8 and 10. I didn't try that often, due to the frustration and anxiety.

Based on what you said that’s much less than I’d have thought. Good deal.

 

[BrawlMan]

TLoU (1) I'll give some credit to the acting and character drama. But the pacing and actual gameplay was mind-numbingly slow and drawn out.

Resident Evil games just never could quite seem to figure out if they wanted to be a joke or not. And the majority of the ones I have played controlled like trash and were repetitive spam fests of the same enemy (even if the enemy was theoretically meant to be a unique individual)

The only RE games to suffer heavily from repetitive or limited enemies are RE1_Vanilla, RE: Gun Survivor (reusing so many assets from RE2), and RE7.

Resident Evil games just never could quite seem to figure out if they wanted to be a joke or not.

They've always been campy and jokey since the first game. RE6 is when the franchise took itself too seriously and suffered for it majorly. Otherwise, the series knows what it is.

 

[BrawlMan]

RayStorm X RayCrisis HD Collection (PS4) - Two crazy vertical shmups redone and repackaged for Switch and PS4. The main gimmick being you have one button for shooting and one for locking-on to enemies or those spawning in the background, a la Panzer Dragoon. I have nothing else much to say other than I prefer RayStorm. Each game has their own unique, but similar aesthetic. RS is your typical shooter, but the first polygon shmup done by Taito. Despite being from 1996, the visuals still hold up well and are pleasing to look at. RC takes this even further by having a much darker atmosphere and cyberspace-like. The game even has multiple endings. My only problem with the games, and this is more so on RC's end, is that I get sensory overload. I can't tell where some of the shots are coming from. I died more in RC, than RS, despite the latter being a shorter game. Then again, you need high ranks to get the true ending, thus seeing more levels and bosses, but I don't see myself playing RC that often.

The soundtracks for both titles are amazing! How is that two mid to late 1990s SHMUPs, and many other from that era, make modern video game composer look like shit? Mainly, because most of them are shit or try to be too much like movies, but that is a topic for another time. Seriously though, the first game (actually second in the Ray franchise) makes me feel like I am playing a Sega Saturn game with its combination of techno and symphony. RC on the other hand, goes heavy on the techno and dark techno, with some minor symphony at the end. A lot of it is reminding me of Radiant Silvergun with its bullet hell style elements. Though funny enough, RayStorm predates Radiant by 2 years. RayCrisis and Radiant Silvergun came out the same year. Though it looks like RC took some elements from Radiant Silvergun with the much darker tone. Could be more than likely coincidence, as not much development history is revealed for the former. Only that it came out in 1998, while Radiant Silvergun came out in May 28, 1998 in Japan only at the time. The remixed soundtracks make an already great soundtrack, even more awesome!

My only other gripe is that this collection should have come with RayForce. Considering its the start the trilogy. It would not have hurt. They're already charging $40 ($20 per game) this double pack. While there are plenty of gameplay and visual enhancements, save states, remixed music, and allowing you to play the games in their original states, there is not much else bonus wise. So play until you can all of the achievements or go for 1CC runs.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Beat the seventh boss in Rogue Legacy 2, now preparing for the final boss. The difficulty curve for bosses has been all over the place in this game. This last guy's moveset is basically made up from all preceding bosses, which seems like overkill. Very conveniently you don't have to go through mystery knight every time though, and three relic rooms spawn right in front of him.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Beat the seventh boss in Rogue Legacy 2, now preparing for the final boss. The difficulty curve for bosses has been all over the place in this game. This last guy's moveset is basically made up from all preceding bosses, which seems like overkill. Very conveniently you don't have to go through mystery knight every time though, and three relic rooms spawn right in front of him.

That's a pretty recent change to the game. In the original release out of Early Access, you just got sent straight into the battle if you decided to skip exploring the castle.

 

[Absent]

Life not being stressful and distressing enough, I'm going back to Creeper World. Started the 4th (slightly discounted on Steam). Still as addictive and oppressive as ever.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

That's a pretty recent change to the game. In the original release out of Early Access, you just got sent straight into the battle if you decided to skip exploring the castle.

I think this is as of the Swan Song update. It basically undoes the need to go through the whole castle looking for relics every time you want to face off Cain. With enough rerolls you can get a decent loadout.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I was playing Solasta Crown of the Magister, giving it a second go after a rage quit and campaign delete (which was admittedly due to my own carelessness).

Unfortunately this time I encountered a bug that meant I couldn't start a major side quest that although not vital to the main storyline does give you a substantial amount of XP and a decent chunk of equipment that makes the next section of the main quest easier. Uninstalled again. Maybe one day I will finish this game. Although I may have to play from the fucking start again if I can't somehow get round the bug.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

In about four hours, the Genshin Impact servers will finish their update maintenance, and I will probably be playing that primarily for the duration of Version 3.8, considering that it's looking to be a pretty big update. And then 4.0 is going to be an even bigger one starting in August.

Meanwhile I managed to finish the third Divine Beast in Breath of the Wild; the forced stealth section ended up being a lot shorter and a lot easier than I expected. Boss of that area was interesting, but honestly a bit short; they could easily have done a few more things. Just one more to go, and to follow up on the photo quest, and I'll have all the main quests finished to get the 'true ending'. (To my knowledge the ending itself doesn't change, but a dialogue before the final boss does, if you haven't finished all of the main quests.)

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Callisto protocol DlC: did they learn anything from criticism?
Don't remember a single level layout from the main game, does anyone else? Anyway. The graphics, while pretty on a specific technical scale, is still wasted on uninspired environment design with boring corridors, visually indistinct locations and the sort of buzzkill atmosphere you'd get from every other game's dreaded sewer levels. Every second of playing this is a sisyphean battle against the overwhelming urge to just download Dead Space to play instead. Jfc they still using the unblockable leech QTE mash attack you couldn't avoid too!

The Wild at Heart.
oh nice a pikmin genre type with deeper coming-of-age story and a Luigi hoover mechanic thing.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Taking a break, I think. Happens sometimes after playing a BIG game (FF16 this time) then trying some other things and nothing sticks.

Started DMC5 and I'm sure it's fine but I just wasn't feeling it's silly edge-lord vibe and aesthetic, just wasn't in the mood for it. The control scheme felt weird and I didn't wanna bother futzing with it. I'm not saying it's like a bad game I just didn't actually feel like hacking and slashing through red and blue environments and being chastised with bad grades for my efforts.

Tried Batman: Arkkahm Knight because I played the other two Arkhams and I figured, hey, another batman, what could go wrong. Well you get a batmotank and at first it's cool but then it seems like they really want to you to love this tank and even the Riddler makes you do a racing game and I'm like.. no, I didn't wanna play Forza, wtf lol, no thx.

Checked out Endless Extinction is Forever, the indy survival game where you're a fox taking car our your cubs and it's cute and sad. These days personally I need a LOT to get me invested in a cutesy indy game and unfortunately the general survival game loop this game has rarely appeals to me and the movement and navigation is so forced it makes Limbo/Inside seem like Assassins Creed- which is fine, it's going for a vibe, it's just not one I wanna go back to. But it's on PS+ now and worth checking out if you can 'cause it is doing something with its theming.

 

[BrawlMan]

Started DMC5 and I'm sure it's fine but I just wasn't feeling it's silly edge-lord vibe and aesthetic,

Edge lord? This?

​

Yeah, I think you got it mixed up with that other "DmC" game.

​

The control scheme felt weird and I didn't wanna bother futzing with it.

You can change and customize the control scheme any time to your liking. Heads up.

I'm not saying it's like a bad game I just didn't actually feel like hacking and slashing through red and blue environments and being chastised with bad grades for my efforts.

It's never easy the first time through. That said, this is like 2nd easiest DMC game. I will give you another heads up and say, Itsuno and his team screwed up how the style system works in this game. The scoring works on a cumulative grade, which is one of the worst ideas ever. On Normal or Human Mode, you won't notice anything, but on harder difficulties, it's way more noticable. Here's a hint: Skip and run past the weaker fights that don't lock you in a room. You'll keep your score high.

 

[thebobmaster]

Just finished my first playthrough of Persona 4: Golden. I am...torn about whether I like it more, less, or on about the same level as Persona 5 Royal. On the one hand, the story is absolutely fantastic, and there is no such thing as a character that doesn't have at least a bit of depth to them. The gameplay, though...I dunno, I think Persona 5 really did a good job of refining the rougher edges of Persona 4, especially the mechanics to get new Personas. I very much preferred the negotiation system in P5 to what P4 does, where the alternative of fusing Personae is to get them by pure luck within a mechanic that only appears by pure luck. You can influence how often that mechanic appears to a degree, but only to a degree.

Yeah, the Shuffle Mechanic is really my biggest sticking point with Persona 4. That and the final dungeon in Golden is a bit bullshitty, and you can only get the true/Golden ending if you choose every dialogue option right in a specific dialogue tree towards the end of the game.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Went back digging through what I can get from PS+ and installed a couple of platformers: Hat in Time and Sackboy. Dunno which one I'll try first. I think Hat came out first, so probably that one. It looks too cute which, depending on my mood, can hit me just right or just be annoying, we'll see.

 

[Dreiko]

Just finished my first playthrough of Persona 4: Golden. I am...torn about whether I like it more, less, or on about the same level as Persona 5 Royal. On the one hand, the story is absolutely fantastic, and there is no such thing as a character that doesn't have at least a bit of depth to them. The gameplay, though...I dunno, I think Persona 5 really did a good job of refining the rougher edges of Persona 4, especially the mechanics to get new Personas. I very much preferred the negotiation system in P5 to what P4 does, where the alternative of fusing Personae is to get them by pure luck within a mechanic that only appears by pure luck. You can influence how often that mechanic appears to a degree, but only to a degree.

Yeah, the Shuffle Mechanic is really my biggest sticking point with Persona 4. That and the final dungeon in Golden is a bit bullshitty, and you can only get the true/Golden ending if you choose every dialogue option right in a specific dialogue tree towards the end of the game.

P4 is a 2008 game in its core, even with the golden upgrades the main systems are like 15 years old, not exactly fair to compare it to p5. It's a literal ps2 game lol.

 

[thebobmaster]

P4 is a 2008 game in its core, even with the golden upgrades the main systems are like 15 years old, not exactly fair to compare it to p5. It's a literal ps2 game lol.

Fair enough, but I've played PS2 and PS1 games with less annoying mechanics than the Shuffle Mechanic system, and that's my only real issue with the game in terms of gameplay.