What are you currently playing?

[BrawlMan]

@Worgen, Siberian Mayhem, Chapter 4 - Roadside Picnic may be my favorite level in the entire game. The Side Mission in the bunker is practically a level within a level. And the XR Ray Gun? Microwaves bad guys; I love it! Especially when you can dual wield them!

Me, when I'm in an open field with powerful weapons!

​

 

[Worgen]

@Worgen, Siberian Mayhem, Chapter 4 - Roadside Panic may be my favorite level in the entire game. The Side Mission in the bunker is practically a level within a level. And the XR Ray Gun? Microwaves bad guys; I love it! Especially when you can dual wield them!

Yeah, thats one of my favs also. I love the vehicle so much, its even better then the mechs.

Still slogging my way through Wrath. At the boss of the second hub, 3 of its missions were pretty good, one totally sucked and one kinda sucked. The suck levels in it are so bad cause they take forever.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'm clicking a bit more with FF7 Rebirth, but man, does Square need to learn to render their open-worlds better.

 

[BrawlMan]

@Worgen, I finished Siberian Mayhem. What a finale and much better final boss fight! I love some of the callbacks done with Serious Sam: First Encounter. The original "WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR" song blasting made giddy like a school boy. The only thing I dislike about the expansion are those Tower enemies with the tentacles. I hate them, and there is one annoying one in the next to last section of the final stage. They should have only been used for one level.

Onwards to RE8.

 

[Worgen]

@Worgen, I finished Siberian Mayhem. What a finale and much better final boss fight! I love some of the callbacks done with Serious Sam: First Encounter. The original "WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR" song blasting made giddy like a school boy. The only thing I dislike about the expansion are those Tower enemies with the tentacles. I hate them, and there is one annoying one in the next to last section of the final stage. They should have only been used for one level.

Onwards to RE8.

Mechanically the final boss of Siberian Mayhem is much better, but the concept of the final boss in SS4 is much cooler. Anyway, yeah, SM is totally awesome but those towers suck.

 

[BrawlMan]

but the concept of the final boss in SS4 is much cooler.

Eeehhhh, I would have preferred just regular shooting the bastard instead of some gimmicky grapple and place explosives that barely work.

 

[Worgen]

Eeehhhh, I would have preferred just regular shooting the bastard instead of some gimmicky grapple and place explosives that barely work.

It worked, it was just janky, but it was also really cool.

 

[BrawlMan]

It worked, it was just janky, but it was also really cool.

To each is their own.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Played a couple hours of krossplay in MK1 on Steam with a bud on Xbox. Worked pleasantly well. Will have to test out how much host advantage there is though, because it seemed like I might’ve gotten a few fatal blows before his blocks registered. But then again there were others where I could see his block response like it was practically a local match. I did have a few connection exclamations flash on screen but didn’t notice any added lag that impeded the matches.

Also played the Ramparts mesa in Season 3, to 80% complete. Need a key to finish it that’s apparently given from an invasions boss, so I’ll probably circle back after trying a few others.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

95 or 96 hours later, I am done with Cyberpunk. Not gonna lie, wasn't particularly satisfied with the ending. Or any of the endings really.

That was a fun ass game. But just like in the Witcher 3, the ending being a result of choosing a handful of dialogue options 30 hours earlier made me feel so empty.

The implied grimness of the ending is also pretty lame. Yeah, yeah, there are no happy endings in Night City. Just like in Edgerunners. But in Edgerunners, you see exactly how far David has come, and how much he has achieved. They say you're a legend of Night City like David and Johnny, but are you really? Nothing in the game ever makes you feel like that. As far as I can tell, your reputation in Night City only gets you discounts at useless vendors.

Overall I still view 2077 as an amazing game, but even after 3 years and so much work put into fixing it, I feel it could have been so much more.

 

[BrawlMan]

I am still early in RE8, and the fact you have to pay for 3rd person mode, unless you bought the Gold Edition is bullshit. The only reason I bought was because it's 50% off, and it comes with the Shadow of Rose and Mercenaries DLC. The VR update is free, why not changing a camera view? Evil Within 2 gave players a FPS mode/mod update for free, based off the modders doing it in the PC version. Capcom has no excuse if Bethesda and Tango Games give to players for free. RE8 may have more bonuses, but that only makes EW2 superior in my eyes, because they're not cutting content and selling it separately. I do like the shooting in this game, but it's still early in. I'll add in more later when I have the time.

 

[gorfias]

Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time in a million years and forgot how to mount my horse. Tried a few buttons and accidentally punched him. He did not dig that. The game allowed me to feed and pat him, so I think we're all good again. For now.

 

[Ag3ma]

I have just finished Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader. Pretty decent RPG experience, bearing in mind the normal foibles of the devs, Owlcat.

I am part-way through Pentiment, which was an odd little joy I spotted released a year or two back. I suppose it's a sort of RPG, although it's more a "choose your own..." narrative mystery. It's based on late medieval art, with some lovely design. It perhaps drifts into anachronistic social commentary at points, but otherwise good work.

Coming up this week is Zoria: Age of Shattering (RPG). Looks promising, but we'll see.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time in a million years and forgot how to mount my horse. Tried a few buttons and accidentally punched him. He did not dig that. The game allowed me to feed and pat him, so I think we're all good again. For now.

Echoing my own experience with that game and referencing Blazing Saddles? Bravo, best post.

On my end...
I finished Ultros. Got a little frustrated at the end when the game hit its peak metroidvania and when I got to the end I was done. Liked the game, glad I played it, recommend it to anyone interested in it, but it didn't enthrall me enough to repetitively backtrack everywhere for full completion or alternate endings.

Tried the much vaunted Balatros for a bit out of curiosity to see if its poker trappings would overcome its core deckbuilding roguelike-ness but, no, I still can't deal with roguelike games, even ones as clever and charming as this one.

So now I'm kind of in a rut and dunno what to play. That's ok though I have a trip in two weeks and I'd like to find something to put on my Steam Deck by then to keep me occupied on that train.

 

[BrawlMan]

@Worgen, I found a physical copy of Prodeus (PS4 version, but free PS5 upgrade) for $15. Last year (technically it was in late 2022), I beat on Switch.

@Old_Hunter_77, if you're interested in 3D platforming, there's Penny's Big Breakaway. The Sonic Mania Team, now called Evening Star Studios, made the game. I completed it earlier this week and had blast. The boss battles are all weak though. I'm playing RE8 right now, but I know you're not into that.

 

[Worgen]

@Worgen, I found a physical copy of Prodeus (PS4 version, but free PS5 upgrade) for $15. Last year (technically it was in late 2022), I beat on Switch.

Nice, Prodeus is pretty solid, even if they did waste a lot of their early access time. Launching didn't add as many levels as it really should have.

 

[meiam]

95 or 96 hours later, I am done with Cyberpunk. Not gonna lie, wasn't particularly satisfied with the ending. Or any of the endings really.

That was a fun ass game. But just like in the Witcher 3, the ending being a result of choosing a handful of dialogue options 30 hours earlier made me feel so empty.

The implied grimness of the ending is also pretty lame. Yeah, yeah, there are no happy endings in Night City. Just like in Edgerunners. But in Edgerunners, you see exactly how far David has come, and how much he has achieved. They say you're a legend of Night City like David and Johnny, but are you really? Nothing in the game ever makes you feel like that. As far as I can tell, your reputation in Night City only gets you discounts at useless vendors.

Overall I still view 2077 as an amazing game, but even after 3 years and so much work put into fixing it, I feel it could have been so much more.

Iirc it's not really a choice you make 30 hours earlier, you literally pick which ending you want right before the end by deciding who you storm the tower with and who which way you go at the end.

Ultimately I think the problem with the ending is that V doesn't have a character arc in the game and so the ending can't really be a resolution to his/her story. Johny sorta has an arc so it end up being more about his life (which is why the closest thing to a good ending is the one where he gets the body in the end).

I do hope if they make a another one it'll be a bit more of an RPG with allowing your character to grow based on your choice and have more agency.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time in a million years and forgot how to mount my horse. Tried a few buttons and accidentally punched him. He did not dig that. The game allowed me to feed and pat him, so I think we're all good again. For now.

If you did that, then you’ll probably also accidentally end up shooting someone when you meant to simply talk to them. So, a big tip, remember to holster your gun whenever you’re around people you don’t want to shoot. Else you’ll have the law on your ass and be screaming “I just wanted to talk!” For some reason Rockstar thought it’d be funny to map these prompts in a shoot first, ask questions later kinda way.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

If you did that, then you’ll probably also accidentally end up shooting someone when you meant to simply talk to them. So, a big tip, remember to holster your gun whenever you’re around people you don’t want to shoot. Else you’ll have the law on your ass and be screaming “I just wanted to talk!” For some reason Rockstar thought it’d be funny to map these prompts in a shoot first, ask questions later kinda way.

He's a cowboy on the edge who lets his gun do the talking! And his gun only knows one really loud word!

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Iirc it's not really a choice you make 30 hours earlier, you literally pick which ending you want right before the end by deciding who you storm the tower with and who which way you go at the end.

Ultimately I think the problem with the ending is that V doesn't have a character arc in the game and so the ending can't really be a resolution to his/her story. Johny sorta has an arc so it end up being more about his life (which is why the closest thing to a good ending is the one where he gets the body in the end).

I do hope if they make a another one it'll be a bit more of an RPG with allowing your character to grow based on your choice and have more agency.

The endings are only options though if you unlock them beforehand. Aldecaldos if you finish Panam's content and don't piss her off, Rogue's ending if you do Johnny's content and don't fuck it up, Reed's ending if you do Phantom Liberty and side with him, and (not sure about this) Johnny's preferred ending if you choose the right dialogue options in that one side quest where he comes to terms with fate.

Anyway, I agree that the issue is that there's no arc for V. The only real goals he had were to become an NC legend, and then to just survive. He supposedly achieves the former, but it never feels like it. The ending where he survives is treated as a bad ending.

The only development he has is becoming friends with Johnny. Which doesn't feel like it amounts to anything.