What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Finished Return of the Obra Dinn. Yes, this game's fantastic. Everything is essentially told in 60 walkable Polaroid moments and a few snippets of circumstantial dialogue and yet I don't remember the last time I was this engaged in a videogame story. Part of it is the great work that goes into the music, the sound design and the voice recordings, but the manner in which the story is delivered - a series of death/murder mysteries retold backwards that not only keep refreshing your interpretation of what the hell is going on, but also revealing several layers of what the hell is going on - is super compelling. Everything just gels. It's just a few dozen stills and soundbites and mannequins posed in sets yet in my mind it feels like I watched the movie. Or read the book. It's a great adaptation of a story that could've been written by Poe or William Hope Hodgson.
My only real nitpick is that the game builds up a "forbidden" chapter within the book you're completing, not the final chapter, but something that will prove integral to the understanding or appreciation of the story. And once you gain access to it... maybe I missed something, but it doesn't really deliver on any significant twist.
But yeah, good stuff. Hope I forget about the fine details of the story one day so I can replay it. Or maybe I'll annoy somebody else to do it so I can backseat the experience.
My only real nitpick is that the game builds up a "forbidden" chapter within the book you're completing, not the final chapter, but something that will prove integral to the understanding or appreciation of the story. And once you gain access to it... maybe I missed something, but it doesn't really deliver on any significant twist.
But yeah, good stuff. Hope I forget about the fine details of the story one day so I can replay it. Or maybe I'll annoy somebody else to do it so I can backseat the experience.
On a whim I checked what’s being promoted this month in RDO and saw the Naturalist sample kit had a discount, so I snatched it. It’s the last pursuit I’ve yet to complete, and it’s doubtful at this point they’ll be adding any others. Basically it involves studying, photographing and tranquing animals to collect samples of for Harriet. You can also kill and skin them for pelts sold to Gus, but that only gives cash and pisses off Harriet so it doesn’t count towards the role XP. Will be playing this in between other stuff for a change of pace. Then after this I think I’ll have had my fill of RDO.
I played the Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC for Borderlands 2. Or more specifically, the weird standalone version that they released in the build-up for the Tiny Tina's Wonderlands game.
And you know, this might just be the perfect slice of Borderlands content.
But with that said, I just can't really fathom why this exists? It is literally just the DLC as a standalone game, with the rest of Borderlands 2 completely stripped out. Thing is, Borderlands 2, with all of the DLCs included (including this one) frequently goes on sale for cheaper than this game. Im not really sure who the target customer is.
Anyway, its fun. Played it on the Steam Deck. Ran fantastically. Actually quite heartfelt.
Otherwise, im now playing Borderlands 3 for the first time since it came out, and having been on a bit of a Borderlands binge recently, let me tell you, this game is quite the glow up compared to BL2. It just looks so nice, and feels so smooth. I am so far very impressed with this game - but admittedly I haven't actually met anyone yet. We'll see if the writing is as bad as everyone says it is, because I really cannot remember.
And you know, this might just be the perfect slice of Borderlands content.
But with that said, I just can't really fathom why this exists? It is literally just the DLC as a standalone game, with the rest of Borderlands 2 completely stripped out. Thing is, Borderlands 2, with all of the DLCs included (including this one) frequently goes on sale for cheaper than this game. Im not really sure who the target customer is.
Anyway, its fun. Played it on the Steam Deck. Ran fantastically. Actually quite heartfelt.
Otherwise, im now playing Borderlands 3 for the first time since it came out, and having been on a bit of a Borderlands binge recently, let me tell you, this game is quite the glow up compared to BL2. It just looks so nice, and feels so smooth. I am so far very impressed with this game - but admittedly I haven't actually met anyone yet. We'll see if the writing is as bad as everyone says it is, because I really cannot remember.
Absent
And twice is the only way to live.
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Still Phoenix Point.
While I love the pitch and the lore, I have to admit that I'd rate the game as a whole below XCOM1/2 and Chimera Squad. Something about the pacing, there's indeed something grindy about it. Something about the missions, their repetitiveness and layout : having to deal with perpetual spawn points at the border of the map really spoils the feel of tactical assault. And the polish. It's like they removed a lot of cool bits from XCOM for the mere sake of not copying it too much, but they didn't replace them with anything equivalent, anything as strong, or anything at all : the old and new XCOM games really made you feel like you were building a base, architecturally, but phoenix point just make you feel like you're aligning cards on a board game. And little things like the battered squad disembarking after a mission, it was a nice touch in XCOM, that they didn't dare copy. Little things like that prevent you to feel like your soldiers are people. You don't see them "breathe". Even their interjections (so cliché, trying so hard to sound cool or reference cool thing - "maximum effort", "let's do this", etc). Not good.
I keep playing it, to discover more about the world, the plot, the factions, the unlockable science, they seem worth it but still... the required grind may soon feel like work more than game.
While I love the pitch and the lore, I have to admit that I'd rate the game as a whole below XCOM1/2 and Chimera Squad. Something about the pacing, there's indeed something grindy about it. Something about the missions, their repetitiveness and layout : having to deal with perpetual spawn points at the border of the map really spoils the feel of tactical assault. And the polish. It's like they removed a lot of cool bits from XCOM for the mere sake of not copying it too much, but they didn't replace them with anything equivalent, anything as strong, or anything at all : the old and new XCOM games really made you feel like you were building a base, architecturally, but phoenix point just make you feel like you're aligning cards on a board game. And little things like the battered squad disembarking after a mission, it was a nice touch in XCOM, that they didn't dare copy. Little things like that prevent you to feel like your soldiers are people. You don't see them "breathe". Even their interjections (so cliché, trying so hard to sound cool or reference cool thing - "maximum effort", "let's do this", etc). Not good.
I keep playing it, to discover more about the world, the plot, the factions, the unlockable science, they seem worth it but still... the required grind may soon feel like work more than game.
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No, its not. It ran flawlessly for me. I mean, its still what it is but I had no problems, you might want to verify game files.
That is kinda what I thought about it. It felt like Xcom but without the soul. Even though I love the aiming mechanic and the factions are decently interesting. But, it's just lesser. Did you get the DLC for it?
I grabbed the humble cyberpunk bundle. Severed Steel is really good, like, I enjoyed the demo but the actual game has grabbed me much harder then I expected. Its a very movement based high speed fps that demands all your attention and I dig it.
I also finished Iron Harvest. The Usonian campaign isn't as good as the main game campaigns. Partially since they keep calling themselves 'American' which seems off since everyone is called something similar but different, Polania, Saxonian, Rusviet, etc. Plus, the flying units, while cool, don't feel as cool as the ww1 style mechs and flying mechanics feel awkward in a ground based game. But I did quite enjoy my time with Iron Harvest, even though the campaign kinda finished on a non end.
Absent
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But I wouldn't say it has no "soul". It doesn't feel as organic as XCOM, there's not the same sense of flow and intuitive grasp of the interface and the situation, but what makes up for it is the genuine honest care I can see about the world, the plot, the concepts, etc. I see it as a clumsy, unpolished game made with actual love. In that sense, I do feel a "soul", precisely, that draws me to it despite some technical discomfort.
Really, that stalker/lovecraft/annihilation-like genetic corruption from the sea is really sweet. It's a nice take on Terror From The Deep wthout flying saucers. It reminds me of Alpha Centaury aswell. And the Manifest Destiny comics. Artistically, it functions. I sense that a human being has dreamt that game up. I might be putting that above gameplay.
Absent
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Oh my god I am so dead.
Tried the MK11 tutorial. With the keyboard. It's... that's... not quite the AC/Arkham pace, block-wise, is it ? I'm used to the computer showing me a big arrow to warn me that an attack may be coming and that I should put down my cup of tea and consider pressing the general block key in the near future. I'm not used to BLOCK UP OR MAYBE BLOCK DOWN IT DEPENDS ON WHICH PART OF YOUR BODY JUST GOT FRACTURED AH MAYBE IT'S TOO LATE THEN. That, and 125 combinations of keys to memorize. Do you know with how many keys I played Mortal Kombat back then ? ONE. The amiga joystick had ONE button.
This might take a bit of training.
Tried the MK11 tutorial. With the keyboard. It's... that's... not quite the AC/Arkham pace, block-wise, is it ? I'm used to the computer showing me a big arrow to warn me that an attack may be coming and that I should put down my cup of tea and consider pressing the general block key in the near future. I'm not used to BLOCK UP OR MAYBE BLOCK DOWN IT DEPENDS ON WHICH PART OF YOUR BODY JUST GOT FRACTURED AH MAYBE IT'S TOO LATE THEN. That, and 125 combinations of keys to memorize. Do you know with how many keys I played Mortal Kombat back then ? ONE. The amiga joystick had ONE button.
This might take a bit of training.
Finished Breath of the Wild, twice. First time I got 120 shrines, all the memories, 200 korok seeds, and completed every sidequest I found. The second time I killed Ganon in my boxer shorts with nothing but a pocket full of durians and bananas and the weapons I found in the castle, and the ending is exactly the same either way. It's not the worst Zelda game by any means, actually parts of it are really quite good. The environments are beautiful, and the game's willingness to take it's hands off the reins and let the player find their own way and own solutions is admirable. But the game is also one of the shallowest Zelda games there is. The world is huge, but there is almost nothing worth finding in it. Korok seeds and shrines are about the most worthwhile thing to find and they lose their luster fairly quickly, especially since you don't need any of them to defeat Ganon because the food system is just broken. 10 minutes wandering around collecting durians gives you over 6 hearty meals that each give you 20 extra hearts and can be eaten from the inventory, compare that to how many hours it would take to visit enough shrines to get the equivalent in heart containers. The only other worthwhile item you might find is clothing, but apart from the temperature nullifying gear I just spent the entire game wearing the soldier armor and the Hylian hood because I liked the way it looked the best.
Sidequests suck. Most of them are fetch quests, and the stories they tell are so shallow and usually have almost no resolution. It would have been nice if they put a bit more effort into the stories they tell. Like, there's one in Hateno where this guy likes the girl at the inn and wants to give her a present, so you ask her what she likes and she makes something up and tells you that she wants a hundred crickets, and then you collect 10 crickets for the guy, and that's it. You get 100 rupees or something. But I want to know what happens! How does she react when he finally gives her 100 crickets? But the world is just so static, you rarely get to effect changes in it. I wish they would have made more of an effort to make the world feel alive and like you are actually making a difference. Even with the main beast quests it rarely feels like you are really making much of a difference. It also bothers me how little the dialogue changes, like you can ask everybody "Who's Mipha?" even after getting 10 explanations and actually remembering her yourself. Like, come on Link, you know who she is! Minigames are more fun and varied than side-quests, but there is absolutely no reason to do them because your only reward is money, and you get more than enough of that throughout the game anyway. I also want to mention that the horse jumping mini-game is completely awful and whoever put it in the game should be ashamed of themselves. It's worse than the one in Ocarina of Time. Just watching my horse slide to the side along the rail instead of jumping it was one of the most frustrating things in the game. Worst part is that it's one of the only minigames with any sort of actual reward.
The puzzles in the game were way too easy. Shrines are immediately obvious at a glance, and that's just the ones that actually bothered to have puzzles. It seemed like half the shrines just gave you the spirit orb on arrival or after doing a copy/paste guardian fight. Divine beasts were better, but still too short to really get interesting.
I never had a problem with weapon durability, the game gives you more than enough weapons that you are never in danger of running out, and after a few inventory space upgrades you will almost never have to leave a good weapon sitting around because you can't pick it up. The combat is worse due to the introduction of RPG mechanics, however. Silver enemies just have so much health that once they started showing up frequently I just stopped fighting enemies at all. It's not like there's any reason to fight them anyway.
Overall, I enjoyed most of my time with Breath of the Wild, but it definitely doesn't measure up to the best of Zelda's lineage. I still think it was a mistake going open world and it mainly takes away from what it was I really liked about the franchise, but since it was so popular there isn't any hope of returning to the style of game that I would prefer in the foreseeable future. I would still say that Tunic is the best Zelda game I've played in recent years.
Edit: As usual Joseph Anderson did a fantastic critique of the game and hits on just about every problem I have with the game in more detail than I care to go into, with the exception of sidequests which he glazes past.
I really wish he was still making videos.
Sidequests suck. Most of them are fetch quests, and the stories they tell are so shallow and usually have almost no resolution. It would have been nice if they put a bit more effort into the stories they tell. Like, there's one in Hateno where this guy likes the girl at the inn and wants to give her a present, so you ask her what she likes and she makes something up and tells you that she wants a hundred crickets, and then you collect 10 crickets for the guy, and that's it. You get 100 rupees or something. But I want to know what happens! How does she react when he finally gives her 100 crickets? But the world is just so static, you rarely get to effect changes in it. I wish they would have made more of an effort to make the world feel alive and like you are actually making a difference. Even with the main beast quests it rarely feels like you are really making much of a difference. It also bothers me how little the dialogue changes, like you can ask everybody "Who's Mipha?" even after getting 10 explanations and actually remembering her yourself. Like, come on Link, you know who she is! Minigames are more fun and varied than side-quests, but there is absolutely no reason to do them because your only reward is money, and you get more than enough of that throughout the game anyway. I also want to mention that the horse jumping mini-game is completely awful and whoever put it in the game should be ashamed of themselves. It's worse than the one in Ocarina of Time. Just watching my horse slide to the side along the rail instead of jumping it was one of the most frustrating things in the game. Worst part is that it's one of the only minigames with any sort of actual reward.
The puzzles in the game were way too easy. Shrines are immediately obvious at a glance, and that's just the ones that actually bothered to have puzzles. It seemed like half the shrines just gave you the spirit orb on arrival or after doing a copy/paste guardian fight. Divine beasts were better, but still too short to really get interesting.
I never had a problem with weapon durability, the game gives you more than enough weapons that you are never in danger of running out, and after a few inventory space upgrades you will almost never have to leave a good weapon sitting around because you can't pick it up. The combat is worse due to the introduction of RPG mechanics, however. Silver enemies just have so much health that once they started showing up frequently I just stopped fighting enemies at all. It's not like there's any reason to fight them anyway.
Overall, I enjoyed most of my time with Breath of the Wild, but it definitely doesn't measure up to the best of Zelda's lineage. I still think it was a mistake going open world and it mainly takes away from what it was I really liked about the franchise, but since it was so popular there isn't any hope of returning to the style of game that I would prefer in the foreseeable future. I would still say that Tunic is the best Zelda game I've played in recent years.
Edit: As usual Joseph Anderson did a fantastic critique of the game and hits on just about every problem I have with the game in more detail than I care to go into, with the exception of sidequests which he glazes past.
I really wish he was still making videos.
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NOT Pikmin 4 because Walmart doesn't understand the concept of 'release date delivery' for me.
I'm about this mad.
I'm about this mad.
Variety of potential causes on the audio front with no clear guaranteed fix, so you'll have to try a bunch and pray. The crashing thing probably can't be fixed because some games just do that.
14 hours into Nioh 2, now in 2nd region.
Combat is still fun! I love the skill tree for different weapons. It makes me wanna continue to master certain weapon types to unlock more skills.
Not a huge fan of mission-based gameplay. Save progression seems a bit weird, as there are no autosaves whenever I pick up an item or use one, or kill an enemy. This took a lot of getting used to as autosave happened pretty often in souls games. Also no saves during in-between mission sections?
Yokai designs are really cool. Some are pretty annoying to kill, like the snake ladies. Guardian Spirit designs are absolute bonkers;
Combat is still fun! I love the skill tree for different weapons. It makes me wanna continue to master certain weapon types to unlock more skills.
Not a huge fan of mission-based gameplay. Save progression seems a bit weird, as there are no autosaves whenever I pick up an item or use one, or kill an enemy. This took a lot of getting used to as autosave happened pretty often in souls games. Also no saves during in-between mission sections?
Yokai designs are really cool. Some are pretty annoying to kill, like the snake ladies. Guardian Spirit designs are absolute bonkers;
Thanks, but too late. Gave up and uninstalled it, the gameplay just wasn't it for me.
Instead, started on Wolfenstein II. I WANT to like this game, but again, the gameplay is not clicking. I remember being able to enjoy stealth segments in the first game, not so much here. Everything is too damn open and it's not like you're given many tools to help with stealth.
The regular combat itself feels so imprecise. Aiming and movement feel floaty. Enemies are all such fucking bullet sponges, so much that I even reduced the difficulty to the easiest. But all that did was make me unkillable, the grunts still took half a mag to kill.
I think I'll stick with it for now, because I do enjoy the story and the characters. But if they throw even more bullet sponges my way, I'll reconsider.
Also the dual wield system sucks ass.
I've said it before, and I will say it again: Wolf II has too many stealth sections and it's too damn open. Why it worked better in the New Order, is because there were less of them, and they were usually in smaller areas.
I stuck to it on Normal mode. It's been a long while, but I don't remember enemies being too spongey.
With that said, the later levels do ramp up enemy health pools. Be prepared.
That one I never had issue with though. The newer Wolfenstein games I find good for one playthrough and I never touch them again afterward. Youngblood can still suck it, and I will never touch it.
BTW, I forgot, but did you finish Vanquish? If so, any final thoughts?
I think it's a PC thing. I didn't have a problem with it on PS4 with the first game.
Oh I did. Final thought would be yeah, the sequel bait is strong with this one. And I do think it's quite sad that a sequel never happened. Not for the story of course, but because the gameplay really was fun. I miss playing slow mo shooters, maybe I'll go and do Max Payne 3 again.
That makes sense.
Shinji Mikami has admitted that he's a gameplay over story person. With him retiring, and having left Platinum a decade ago, I highly doubt they will bother to make another game. Which is sad, because they can ditch the regenerating health and give Sam a full on health meter.
There's Hong Kong Massacre, if you're interested in that.
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I'm not sure where I am with FF12. I'm feeling like I may drop it, combat is a weird combination of fun, not fun and frustration, the job system just annoys me, the plot is interesting but kinda poorly told (really feels like this is the Japanese attempt at Shakespeare) I was kinda counting on FF12 keeping me occupied till Baldersgate 3 but with Ratchet and Clank coming to steam in a few days... I don't know.
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Check out Severed Steel, its all bout that slomo lifestyle.
Its also part of one of the current humble bundles.
Cyberpunk Playground
Tool up, jack in, and bask in the neon with this cyberpunk game bundle, including ANNO: Mutationem, Ghostrunner, and Cloudpunk. Pay what you want & support charity!
www.humblebundle.com
The plot isn't poorly told, its just poor. There's actually two plots running parallel to each others that only very rarely and superficially intersect with each others. The writer know that and tries to pretend that they are just one plot, and that's where a lot of the problem comes from.
Depending on where you are it might be worth continuing, there's a point where the side content monster hunt really open up and I think that's the best part of the game.
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I'm at the point where I have to wander north to the capital or something. It does feel like you have the story of Ashe and the magicite then you have the empire stuff and they are both being told in separate rooms. I'm not sure I care about the monster hunt stuff, like I don't like that its so weird to manage threat so enemies just go for my ranged characters, plus it kinda feels like the best thing I could do is just redo all the jobs, have one white mage and everyone else is some kinda melee and that just kinda annoys me.
DMC5 Special Edition - God it's so good! There are no load times at all! Turbo Mode makes things so much better!