What are you currently playing?

[Old_Hunter_77]

Lies of P demo

When this game was announced, I was extremely hyped. At that start of this year, with so many things coming out, it was top of my anticipated games. After playing the demo, I don't want it anymore.

You know how everybody been calling this thing Bloodborne Pinocchio? I just assumed that is a shortcut- you know, it kinda that has Victorian gothic feel, the mechanics and combat are similar to Souls games...
Y'all- it's literally Bloodborne lol. I mean it's got all the same shit- connected levels with shortcuts to unlock, checkpoints to respawn enemies and health, the same attack/dodge/parry, camera boss, mini-bosses, sort-of-side-quests, and on and on.
And you may think well what's the problem your avatar and handle are Bloodborne. But what happened to me in the past year is that I just can't even with these kinda games any more. Since Bloodborne- which came out 8 years ago and I played 5 years ago- I played 6 more of these games where I have to fight a boss 100x and look stuff up on youtube and I'm done with that shit.

It is impressive that another studio- probably a smaller one than FromSoftware- did a good job of recreating that experience. But, again- I already had the experience. And it's fine to have copycat games but if it's also really hard, i'm just too over that shit. Add the really annoying delay attacks thing that Dark Souls 3 made prominent and Elden Ring cemented as the standard of challenging 3rd person combat and I just can't play these games any more.

The art and aesthetic are nice- playable character and enemies are "puppets" which feeds into the lore and upgrades and everything and the theme is consistent and well done. We like when games come up with this whole weird world and internal rules and stick to them and this seems to do that. As with any Souls game, dialogue is minimal- I mean I was gonna type more about that put even that stuff is exactly Soulsborne.

Where the game pisses me off is the same reason I hated Wo Long- it's so close to a great game but just less good enough as to make it annoying. Wo Long is compared to Sekiro but the timing is a little more awkward which makes everything terrible. Similarly, Lies of P wants you to parry but I just could not get it down.

Something happened to me or games or both where I could platinum Sekiro, THE parry game, and cannot for the life me understand when Wo Long and Lies of P want me to hit that button. It makes me so angry.

The demo has 4 areas and 3 big bosses. I got up to the last boss and quit when I summoned a helper (yep, it does that Souls thing too), got its stagger signifier up (yep, there's a stagger now, like every damn game is doing that), but then couldn't execute the strong attack in order to follow through with the critical hit (yes, it does that same ol' thing too) because it was fighting my summons- BULLSHIT. Then later in the fight when I did stagger it, I couldn't get in front of it because of awkward lock on and movement speed in time.
When you're playing a tough game with intricate mechanics but also fighting against the controls, you gotta really really love the game to push through that- aka, "playing Dark Souls." But I ain't about that noise now. Rage quit.

There are two reasons why Bloodborne is so much MORE than this could be- it was first, and my first. But also the mechanics/combat/gamapley match the body-horror monster thing of BB perfectly in a way that doesn't quite translate with automatons and Pinocchio.

I feel a little bad because I want game companies to release demos, and I'm so glad they did. Unfortunately, it had the effect of convincing to me not buy it. This is half about the game- again, it's just less-good Bloodborne- and mostly about my changing tastes and interests and feeling like I'm just done with these types of games.

I'm still pysched for Armored Core because I feel the type of levels and combat I've seen are different enough as to make it a different experience. Yes I'll still be struggling with bosses but if the movement and gameplay are as smooth as all the reviewers have said, that will make it actually fun.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Ever tried Portal? I mean, it’s technically more first person perspective than shooter (where shooting is basically for portals) intertwining clever puzzles and level design. Also has one of the more intriguing gaming protagonists in Glados.

Yes, I played Portal 2. Of course I agree it's great.

I also played Dishonored which I loved and Bioshock: Infinite which I loved. I'm not 100% anti FPS because I try not to be 100% anti anything but those games offered really unique designs and worlds and, for me, experiences.
Like.. i don't have a hard and fast rule about this stuff, just preferences, you know?

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Yeah, it's hard to get into playing a 2009 game in 2023 and I was happy that DAI(and a lesser extent DA2 had actual Color and not just shades of puke) I keep telling myself I'm gonna play Baldurs gate 1 and 2 to get prepped for 3 but....those games are from the late 1990's and apparently the gameplay didn't age well.

1990s BG player: A real D&D TT experience on the PC!
2020's BG player: I could be playing BG3 or any number of other TT inspired PC games right now that play and look a lot better.

As someone who tried to play BG in the late 90's/early 00s and DA:O in the early 10's, I wouldn't say I found the gameplay particularly enjoyable at the time either, despite how much I wanted a D&D tabletop experience on PC.

 

[meiam]

I've abandoned my playthrough of Lost Odyssey, about two thirds through disc 3, tho not because I wasn't enjoying the game. No, it's because when I tried installing disc 4 to my 360, it kept failing because of read errors. Assuming it even wanted to read at all. Or wasn't detected as a regular dvd, or as a completely different game. And the disc is fine. No scratches or signs of disc rot, or anything like that. So I went online, and turns out it's a very common problem with Lost Odyssey disc 4. A lot of them are just borked out of the box. There are some home remedies that will supposedly make the disc work long enough to install, which I tried some, but none of them worked.

So I gave up. A shame too. It was like playing a more mature Final Fantasy, imo more Final Fantasy than any of Square's offerings since X, maybe even IX. I suppose I'll try looking for one of those long form reviews/plot breakdowns for it, so I'll at least know how it ends.

Out of frustration I decided to play Marsupilami Hoobadventure. Had picked it up at the same yard sale as Lost Odyssey, kind of on a whim out of nostalgia for the old Spirou & Fantasio bd. Tho this is apparently based on a still in development cgi animated show, which I guess is why the Marsupilami has a different design. Tho I suppose translating Franquin's art would be a pain.

Anyway, I didn't expect much, you know, tie-in game to a kids show, but it was dirt cheap. But it's actually surprisingly good. Basically a Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze clone. Not as challenging, and perhaps a little too on the easy side actually, but overall of an enjoyable and polished platformer. Controls well, looks nice and colorful, cheery music. I'd actually recommend it to anyone looking for a solid platformer suitable for younger children on Switch.

Shame about LO, maybe its possible to transfer the save to a PC and emulate it?

Love marsupilami as a kid, they did make an actual cartoon of it a long time ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupilami_(1993_TV_series)

 

[BrawlMan]

Out of frustration I decided to play Marsupilami Hoobadventure. Had picked it up at the same yard sale as Lost Odyssey, kind of on a whim out of nostalgia for the old Spirou & Fantasio bd. Tho this is apparently based on a still in development cgi animated show, which I guess is why the Marsupilami has a different design. Tho I suppose translating Franquin's art would be a pain.

Anyway, I didn't expect much, you know, tie-in game to a kids show, but it was dirt cheap. But it's actually surprisingly good. Basically a Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze clone. Not as challenging, and perhaps a little too on the easy side actually, but overall of an enjoyable and polished platformer. Controls well, looks nice and colorful, cheery music. I'd actually recommend it to anyone looking for a solid platformer suitable for younger children on Switch.

I never knew about the TV show, nor that another Tropical Freeze clone existed. The other one being Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair. I might check this out.

​

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Never heard GLADoS called a protagonist before, unless you meant to use a different word there.

Yeah, meant antagonist but I think my brain was stuck on P.

 

[Hawki]

I never knew about the TV show, nor that another Tropical Freeze clone existed. The other one being Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair. I might check this out.

​

Marsupalami?

 

[BrawlMan]

DMC5:SE - I finished Legendary Dark Knight Mode, and nearly have all the moves unlocked for each character, aside from Vergil. All I need to do now is unlock their EX taunts. Each one costs 3 million orbs, so I'll have to grind on LDK mode, if I want to get them quickly. What I love about beating LDK mode, is that do so automatically unlocks Dante Must Die Mode. So the player doesn't have to waste time with Son of Sparda Mode, unless they want to, or get the achievement. Anyone playing this version of DMC5, I recommend just jumping straight into LDK after beating Devil Hunter first. You'll nearly have all the moves you need by the end of your second playthrough.

EDIT: Never mind, I was able to unlock all of Vergil's moves, taunt aside, by Mission 1.

 

[laggyteabag]

Playing through a couple of games at the moment. Borderlands 3, and Overwatch 2.

Starting with Borderlands 3, the gameplay is leaps and bounds above Borderlands 2. The environments, guns, movement, and graphics are just superior, with barely an "if" or a "but" in sight. The main sticking point for a lot of people, is the quality of writing and the story. And frankly, it really isn't as bad as everyone says. You will quite often hear that if you just turn the dialogue slider all the way down to zero, the quality of the game will improve drastically, because there are literally zero redeeming qualities about the characters, story, or general dialogue. I think this is a massive hyperbole. Is it as good as Borderlands 2, or the Pre-Sequel? No. Not even close. But it is at least better than Borderlands 1 IMO, which frankly lacks even a single memorable narrative thing about it, outside of maybe the General Knox DLC. Its fine. A little cringe maybe. But far from the worst dialogue/story/characters ever conceived of in a videogame, as many people will try to tell you.

Otherwise, i've started playing a bit of Overwatch 2 again, and I think the horrible mishandling of the game's post-launch support has sadly completely overshadowed just how fun this game is. Im having a fantastic time revisiting this game, and im reminded by how the production values surrounding the core gameplay loop are just through the roof. It is just a massive shame that all of this is ignored in the face of a game that sadly lacks a reason to exist. Frankly, if Overwatch 2 never existed, and they just continued supporting the first game, Overwatch would be in a much better and healthier place.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I'm not sure I would recommend portal to someone uncomfortable with first person since there is a lot of odd movement there. I mean if they are interested in it then they should play it since its awesome. Really for something more relaxed and first person, I would recommend the Talos Principle since also puzzle based but less portally.

As someone who doesn't get motion sick easily I wouldn't recommend The Talos Principle. For some reason that game is one of the only ones to ever make me feel motion sickness.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Chants of Sennaar- demo

I decided to check it out just because.. I dunno, it was there, had no idea what it was, looked interesting.
It is a puzzle game where you walk around and use deduction to get around. It has:
- Visual/art style similar to Sable and Rollerdrome, that pastel thing.
- A made up language with symbols that you gotta figure out as you, like Tunic and Outer Wilds.
- Environment and visual prompts and context to move around

In the very brief demo, that latter bit seems very easy- every prompt and point of interest is very much telegraphed. If the whole game is like the demo, it's a pretty easy game and maybe it's more about the vibes and atmosphere. If you like the walking around vibes type of game and that Sable art style, could be worth checking out. If you really like puzzles, then at least the demo doesn't really promise to offer much on that front.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Finished Wolfenstein II.

Man does this game ask you to suspend disbelief. And I'm not even talking about getting your fucking head cut off and reattached to a super soldier body. Anyway, the finale was a little underwhelming. You go through hell to capture this gigantic airship (which we are asked to believe is such a threat when the Nazis have the technology to maintain a base on VENUS), and yet, you don't even get to use it. You just listen to a pretty lame "wooo America" speech and the game ends. Overall, underwhelming is a fitting description for the game. It's just Wolfenstein I but slightly bigger, but also not as good.

Still, it is kinda sad that they decided to just skip over the "ending" with Youngblood. And now the whole franchise may as well be dead. Oh well, we'll always have New Order I guess.

On to the next Game Pass game. I will either do Fallen Order or Mass Effect Andromeda.

 

[Chimpzy]

Shame about LO, maybe its possible to transfer the save to a PC and emulate it?

It's possible, yes, tho a somewhat involved process. Emulating is also pretty unstable at this time, crashing and gamebreaking bugs at various points. Some of these have workarounds, but others require you use a savegame to skip past it, and some remain unresolved. I'm going to hold onto it for now, wait until things maybe improve. Tho the backward compatibility of the Series consoles means there's not as much impetus for 360 emulation, since few games that people want are 'locked' to the 360.

Speaking of, another option is a Xbox One or Series X, since the backwards compatability only requires disc 1 to work. Tho I'm not buying a console for one game. Maybe secondhand if cheap enough, but for that it'd need appeal beyond the bc, and because I have a gaming pc, it doesn't have any.

I never knew about the TV show, nor that another Tropical Freeze clone existed. The other one being Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair. I might check this out.

​

Yeah, there was a Disney show in the 90's, another French one in the 00's, tho this is apparently based on a new one that hasn't aired yet. Anyway, the game is a pretty decent platformer. Just keep in mind it is a kid-oriented game, and it's easy until the last couple levels. Also pretty short. However, there was a free update that added another ten more challenging levels. Worth picking up, but for $10 or less, no more.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Starting with Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 is absolutely unplayable to me, for the fact that due to circumstances, I play using the arrow keys instead of WASD- and in BL3, the arrow keys are hard-coded to emotes. No PC game should have controls hard-coded to anything.

 

[BrawlMan]

Still, it is kinda sad that they decided to just skip over the "ending" with Youngblood. And now the whole franchise may as well be dead. Oh well, we'll always have New Order I guess.

I ignore Youngblood for a good reason.

Yeah, there was a Disney show in the 90's, another French one in the 00's, tho this is apparently based on a new one that hasn't aired yet. Anyway, the game is a pretty decent platformer. Just keep in mind it is a kid-oriented game, and it's easy until the last couple levels. Also pretty short. However, there was a free update that added another ten more challenging levels. Worth picking up, but for $10 or less, no more.

All fine by me. I don't need every platformer to be crazy hard, nor exactly like Donkey Kong Country.

 

[Worgen]

Starting with Borderlands 3, the gameplay is leaps and bounds above Borderlands 2. The environments, guns, movement, and graphics are just superior, with barely an "if" or a "but" in sight. The main sticking point for a lot of people, is the quality of writing and the story. And frankly, it really isn't as bad as everyone says. You will quite often hear that if you just turn the dialogue slider all the way down to zero, the quality of the game will improve drastically, because there are literally zero redeeming qualities about the characters, story, or general dialogue. I think this is a massive hyperbole. Is it as good as Borderlands 2, or the Pre-Sequel? No. Not even close. But it is at least better than Borderlands 1 IMO, which frankly lacks even a single memorable narrative thing about it, outside of maybe the General Knox DLC. Its fine. A little cringe maybe. But far from the worst dialogue/story/characters ever conceived of in a videogame, as many people will try to tell you.

I never understood the hate that BL3 gets. I think your correct, it plays much better then 2, pretty much the only thing that isn't better then 2 is the characters and that is mostly because Handsome Jack was such a great antagonist that pretty much no one could stand up against him. I thought the twins worked fine as villains', they were as obnoxious as real influencers but had more depth them real ones. Not to mention that your player characters have more and better lines then the other games.

 

[BrawlMan]

Starting with Borderlands 3, the gameplay is leaps and bounds above Borderlands 2. The environments, guns, movement, and graphics are just superior, with barely an "if" or a "but" in sight. The main sticking point for a lot of people, is the quality of writing and the story. And frankly, it really isn't as bad as everyone says. You will quite often hear that if you just turn the dialogue slider all the way down to zero, the quality of the game will improve drastically, because there are literally zero redeeming qualities about the characters, story, or general dialogue. I think this is a massive hyperbole. Is it as good as Borderlands 2, or the Pre-Sequel? No. Not even close. But it is at least better than Borderlands 1 IMO, which frankly lacks even a single memorable narrative thing about it, outside of maybe the General Knox DLC. Its fine. A little cringe maybe. But far from the worst dialogue/story/characters ever conceived of in a videogame, as many people will try to tell you.

I never understood the hate that BL3 gets. I think your correct, it plays much better then 2, pretty much the only thing that isn't better then 2 is the characters and that is mostly because Handsome Jack was such a great antagonist that pretty much no one could stand up against him. I thought the twins worked fine as villains', they were as obnoxious as real influencers but had more depth them real ones. Not to mention that your player characters have more and better lines then the other games.

Probably because Maya and Aureila gets killed off unceremoniously. I know it's a huge sore spot for most fans. There are people who do not like Ava. I have no stake in this, as I couldn't get into the Borderlands franchise period. Also, Borderlands 3's story being better than Borderlands 1's story ain't much of a milestone for a lot of the fans. There are plenty of FPS and non-FPS games better than B1's story. To that, I agree whole heartedly. I heard B3's DLC Story is great, so there is that for those interested.

There's these other reasons too, but some boil down to personal preference:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/Borderlands3

• Base-Breaking Character: Ava is the biggest one. Many players see her as The Load, a constant burden on the other characters whose reckless actions make her directly responsible for the death of Maya, and Troy stealing her powers, an act she is never called out on by the other characters, or even seems to grow from, and instead blames on Lilith. Later, she inherits Maya's powers after Troy's death, and is given Sanctuary by Lilith, which detractors argue feel completely unearned (the former quasi-justified by prior information, but the latter being odd given Lilith clearly knew other people better suited to lead, or at least people she knew better). Ava is not without fans, however, who argue that her actions are realistic for a girl her age, that her haters overstate her role in the events above, and that she does experience Character Development, albeit subtly and mostly through easily missable optional dialogue. Gearbox themselves admitted on their Borderlands Show podcast that the negative reaction to Ava took them by surprise. An attempt was made to salvage her in the Mysteriouslier story arc, but that fell short.

• Badass Decay: Lilith, Maya, Mordecai, Brick, and Tina are all viewed as less "badass" as they were in previous games for various reasons.
  • For Lilith, it's due to her being inflicted with the Worf Effect and being Brought Down to Normal, severely limiting her role as an active player for the rest of the game until the very end.
  • For Tina, Mordecai and Brick, it's due to their role in the story being fairly small and not helping the fight against the Calypsos like they did against Jack.
  • For Maya, it's due to her short role and being Killed Off for Real in an unsatisfying manner.

• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: The game got hit with an interesting version of this after launch. Because the game is so generous with the amount of experience it gives out, it's very easy to get overleveled. And once you are overleveled, it's more or less impossible to bring your character's level back in line with the main questline's recommended levels. Because of this, many players reported being massively overleveled by the timer they got to the end of the campaign and were able to absolutely steamroll everything. A patch eventually addressed this, making it so enemies in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon would always scale up to whatever level the player was. Mayhem Mode also addresses this in that once it's active, all quests and enemies are scaled to your current level so that it's an even playing field.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A common complaint among the game's detractors is that the game doesn't look, play, or feel all that much different from Borderlands 2, now 7 years old, and that lack of innovation and improvement over its recent competitors in the same genre makes it mediocre now that it's no longer the only major loot-shooter out there.

 

[BrawlMan]

For some reason, unlike the RE Engine RE Remakes/RE7-8, saves nor achievements transfer over in SF6. So I have to install both versions of the game installed on my PS5. I keep the PS4 version installed for WT, because I am never starting that all over again. Good thing I didn't do any online at all on the PS4 version. it keeps my purchases and DLC, I got at the start so I can't complain too much, but it still sucks a little.

 

[Worgen]

Probably because Maya and Aureila gets killed off unceremoniously. I know it's a huge sore spot for most fans. There are people who do not like Ava. I have no stake in this, as I couldn't get into the Borderlands franchise period. Also, Borderlands 3's story being better than Borderlands 1's story ain't much of a milestone for a lot of the fans. There are plenty of FPS and non-FPS games better than B1's story. To that, I agree whole heartedly. I heard B3's DLC Story is great, so there is that for those interested.

There's these other reasons too, but some boil down to personal preference:

As much as killing off Aureila annoyed me, you kill all the player characters from the pre-sequel, most of them in BL2, Aureila is the only one that lasts till 3. No one ever likes a younger character replacing another character, its one of those things that fans universally hate.

Actually the TV tropes article listed isn't even a good one. Of course badass decay happens, its a sequel with new player characters, the originals are never badass in those, in almost any game. Cause if they were it would take away from your new player characters.

All borderlands games are easy till you get to mayhem levels.

Play BL2 then 3 then 2 again and tell me they play the same outside of both being lootershooters and first person.

 

[BrawlMan]

No one ever likes a younger character replacing another character, its one of those things that fans universally hate.

Yep. It's rare when works out well.

Of course badass decay happens, its a sequel with new player characters,

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Sometimes it does work, but most times it doesn't.

the originals are never badass in those, in almost any game. Cause if they were it would take away from your new player characters.

Between you and the other fans, that opinion will be highly debatable.

All borderlands games are easy till you get to mayhem levels.

No disagreement there.

Play BL2 then 3 then 2 again and tell me they play the same outside of both being lootershooters and first person.

I'll take your word for on this one, but I am sure there will be a bunch of others that will disagree with you on this. One of them being GGManLives, if I remember correctly. I could be wrong.

Street Fighter 6 on PS5 runs great and loads fast! I did some matches with my brother, and I won 8 rounds, and he won 5 rounds. Good games.