What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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I'd say it is fairly similar to Future Soldier. But without all the presentation, which was essentially the only thing Future Soldier had going for it.
Even Future Soldier is a better Ghost Recon game than those two crappy open world games.
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Continuing season 2 Invasions. It’s not that bad now. For some reason the first couple fights felt like the AI was more aggressive but it’s probably just because of being able to roll everyone at max stats before without even trying. Unlocked a couple neat skins for whenever I try out Sindel and Ashrah.
The character mastery is a good way of unlocking character specific stuff, but too grindy. I’ve played Mileena for about twenty or so hours and am only at level 21 out of 35. Haven’t been the most efficient in terms of points per match but even then I’d probably need a few more hours to max out.
Also making a Quality build on a new Wretch character in ER on PC since I’ll probably be getting the expansion there. Odds are it’ll be announced within a month and even playing slowly I should be at a pretty cozy spot by the time it releases.
The character mastery is a good way of unlocking character specific stuff, but too grindy. I’ve played Mileena for about twenty or so hours and am only at level 21 out of 35. Haven’t been the most efficient in terms of points per match but even then I’d probably need a few more hours to max out.
Also making a Quality build on a new Wretch character in ER on PC since I’ll probably be getting the expansion there. Odds are it’ll be announced within a month and even playing slowly I should be at a pretty cozy spot by the time it releases.
It’s basically just so they could call it Wild Lands. It was fun having an assortment of vehicles to cover the expanse of terrain in different ways, but yeah the objectives got very Ubisoft after a few hours. Felt like the longest game by the time I finished all the story missions.
I played a bit of Streets of Rage 4 and it's pretty good. Not much to say, really, you go around punching people, which is nice. I mean, the punching is good, good gameplay for what it is and all that. I do like the character art. Gave up in the last stage though, the difficulty spike was tremendous. Maybe I'll restart with a different character and in easy mode if I get the itch to play some more.
Mafia 2 is on PS+ and I started it, knowing not to expect much 'cause it's old but I was down for a stupid mafia fantasy. Quit during chapter 5 when I did a whole big long shooting sequence, got killed, then it starts you over. That discount GTA game style of ok driving and shitty cover shooting does not hold my interest unless the rest of the game is very easy or very fun with their characters or situations and while "hey yous guys whatsamatta ova hee" wise guys routine was charming for a bit it's not enough to make me deal with PS3 jank.
So now I dunno... maybe I'll try to pick up SF6 or BG3 or something again.
Mafia 2 is on PS+ and I started it, knowing not to expect much 'cause it's old but I was down for a stupid mafia fantasy. Quit during chapter 5 when I did a whole big long shooting sequence, got killed, then it starts you over. That discount GTA game style of ok driving and shitty cover shooting does not hold my interest unless the rest of the game is very easy or very fun with their characters or situations and while "hey yous guys whatsamatta ova hee" wise guys routine was charming for a bit it's not enough to make me deal with PS3 jank.
So now I dunno... maybe I'll try to pick up SF6 or BG3 or something again.
Glad you finally got to it. The last stage can be tough and believe it or not, it was actually easier pre-two patches beforehand when the game first released. It wasn't until 2021 they decided to change the last stage in one section, cuz they felt it was too easy. I really wish they didn't do that.
Yeah it's the part where they throw like 20 of those fat dudes at you... like wtf. I actually liked fighting them up until that point and then it's non-stop.
Just a major pet peeve of mine in games where at the end it's just waves and waves and gank squads. I don't have that kind of endurance. I suppose I should have expected it in a game that is deliberately recreating an earlier era.
What I did really like is how weapons/objects work, and that I was basically able to figure out the "advanced" moves on my own, like when you grab someone and flip direction, or bounce-catch something you throw at them.
Ken. Or, the blonde dude that reminded me of Ken from Street Fighter. I just generally go with all the default choices when I play a game for the first time.
If I replay I'll probably go for the chick in the skirt or the kid with the guitar because they look like they might have more different moves.
Axel Stone. Ironic enough, he started off as a Cody clone (Final Fight, Street Fighter Alpha 3, SFIV&V), and then turned into blonde Ryu. Then again, he already had some of Ken and Ryu's moves in the second and third game. Axel is coming full circle at this point. He is a good starting character for people who just started the game. That's always been his role. Jack of all stats. Blaze (the lady with the leather jacket and red skirt combo) is the Jill of all stats. She has balance power in speed, but moves faster than Axel. Cherry Hunter (the teenager with the guitar) is your fragile speedster of the group.
I think what's making it feel incredibly long is that a lot of the skill tree is for some fucking reason tied to collectibles.
I can already tell that the only way I can finish this game is by focusing on story missions only.
I've been working my way through Arkham Knight for the first time, and last night I had a sobering reminder of why I once played Arkham City for like 12 hours straight. Rocksteady are just wizards with their pacing and making the simple act of traversal so fun that I just fall into a trance and zip around the city, clearing outposts and doing the usual (mid-2010s) sandbox stuff. It also helps that this is one of the most gorgeous games I've ever played. It's wild that this came out over 8 years ago, because it could be released today and still blow many mainstream releases out of the water in visual terms. It's not just the technical prowess with the lighting, detail and physics, but the artistic vision as well: the rain-slick, neon-lit streets just drip with atmosphere. The environment design is so good that I actually thought of just walking through the sandbox to appreciate it all. The Arkham games have always had a phenomenal eye for environmental detail, and here it's taken to new heights. Every location is absolutely strewn with small details and touches that make the world feel truly lived in.
Where this game falters, albeit minorly, is in how it feels like the series has done everything it can, and most it can do is just throw in more mechanics. Which can at times feel bloated. There's so many different tools and solutions to problems, but having been firmly trained in Arkham City, basic sneaking behind enemies is still often a perfectly viable solution. Which just makes me feel like I'm letting the game down somewhat. In the combat sections it often feels like the game's struggling under its own weight: there are so many different enemy types and elements at play that it feels like the game's struggling to juggle all of it. Many times I've hit the combo disarm function to try to take out a shield or an electric baton, and end up just cracking a baseball bat in half.
The story is something of a mixed bag, and it feels unfocused. There hasn't been much of a sense of momentum or things building up to something. It feels more like a string of tangents and side missions put together. But that I knew going in, so it's not that big of a deal.
Where this game falters, albeit minorly, is in how it feels like the series has done everything it can, and most it can do is just throw in more mechanics. Which can at times feel bloated. There's so many different tools and solutions to problems, but having been firmly trained in Arkham City, basic sneaking behind enemies is still often a perfectly viable solution. Which just makes me feel like I'm letting the game down somewhat. In the combat sections it often feels like the game's struggling under its own weight: there are so many different enemy types and elements at play that it feels like the game's struggling to juggle all of it. Many times I've hit the combo disarm function to try to take out a shield or an electric baton, and end up just cracking a baseball bat in half.
The story is something of a mixed bag, and it feels unfocused. There hasn't been much of a sense of momentum or things building up to something. It feels more like a string of tangents and side missions put together. But that I knew going in, so it's not that big of a deal.
Super agree on the combat, both brawling and stealth.
The ninjas and some of the Knight's goons are incredibly annoying since they have quite difficult parry timings, and yet they come in so late into the game and add on to an already diverse array of enemy types so you never develop the muscle memory you need.
As for the stealth... yeah, I think Asylum and the later games really missed a trick when they let you use unlimited Detective Vision. They did try to keep you off the gargoyles and out of Detective Vision, but it never felt meaningful enough for me to really change things up. And they can't do something like specific enemies requiring specific takedowns like they do in Freeflow, because that would introduce the possibility of never being able to take out everyone. I didn't want them to resort to Ubisoft style "throw a rock to distract the guard" stealth, but I felt they could have made stealth tighter and more constrictive.
But yeah, I don't think Knight was the right game to drastically overhaul the Arkham combat systems. It had just too much baggage from previous games to deal with.
Nail on the head on this one. Easily the most engaging addition to the stealth has been the guys who can track your use of detective vision. It places a timer on it and forces you to take in enemy placements and memorize stuff more. In theory anyway. Mostly it just means that guy is the one you always take out first, and then it's business as usual.
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Void Stranger and The Witch Knight. The Witch Knight is quite good, but its hard and the story starts out... strange, it gets much more interesting then it starts out.
Void Stranger, I'm on my 3rd run through, trying to keep alive as long as possible to find secrets before some bs makes me go void, while trying to figure out the... game. I also need to go back to the egg at some point and figure out what its all about.
Void Stranger, I'm on my 3rd run through, trying to keep alive as long as possible to find secrets before some bs makes me go void, while trying to figure out the... game. I also need to go back to the egg at some point and figure out what its all about.
I finally finished the Legend Mode in Hyrule Warriors. It took a while, not only because it just kept going and going with scenario after scenario, and when I think it's finally over... bam! Wind Waker arc! (on a side note, Linkle is pretty OP and I love it). But also I was playing the Adventure Mode too, unlocking more characters and weapons (I find the Summoning Gate very fun for some reason). I played it in Hard, because I was under the impression the game wouldn't be challenging otherwise; so now that I unlocked the Hero difficulty and the second golden skulltulas in Legend Mode, I think I'll get better weapons for everyone before hunting for them.
Those are extra scenarios and campaigns from the 3DS version put into the definitive edition of the game. If you have the Wii U version, you don't get those extra stories. You can get the characters, but you don't get their campaigns. That said, the Wii U store has been closed already, so it's pretty much impossible to get those characters on that version now unless you already have them installed before the store shut down.
And all that talent wasted on the last 8 years making a live-service game, because WB Games is the worst.