The stuff at the start in the snowy woods, and whenever you're inside caves and such all looks pretty great. It's the Lake of Nine scenery that feels pretty flacid and lacking in character.
What are you currently playing?
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You're talking to a man who is playing a jRPG and has replayed The Witcher 3 and multiple AssCreed games. God of War is lean an efficient by some of the standards I'm used to.
Speaking of, Tales of Arise updated: I completed the stated objectives, saved the planet from tyranny, reached the big promised character breakthroughs... and got a new introductory title sequence. lol... Japanese things, you are crazy.
Yeah, but within the realm of linear games it's a giant sausage that can barely support its own weight.
Played a game called Industria. Seemed influenced by Halflife 2 and immersive sims, and it was free on the Epic store a while back. And yeah, the setting definitely has City 17 vibes. Supposedly mostly made by only two people. But it's not very good.
Gameplay is monotonous, with bad same-y level design and lackluster combat. There are 5 enemy types, and 4 of them are of the "charge you and attack" type. They're also spongy, unless you use the shotgun or the rifle, since those can oneshot anything. But you're not guaranteed a reliable supply of ammo for any of the guns. Because all ammo drops are random, so you regularly end up getting ammo you're already full up on, while other ammo types don't drop for extended periods of time.
As for imsim elements, there's no stealth, no hacking, or powers, or lockpicking, or any alternate method of solving problems. Just shooting. There's one puzzle at the start where you have to find chemicals and mix them to create a rust remover, but the chemicals are in vending machines only three rooms apart, and this mechanic is never used again. Two mandatory instances of stacking boxes to progress, and like a handful of finding a valve to open a door.
It's buggy, sometimes to the point of softlocking you. It runs poorly. It's also only like 2-2.5 hours long and then just ends in a highly unsatisfying cliffhanger. It's got ambition, sure, but the devs imo bit off more than they can chew.
I also tried Callisto Protocol, again cuz free on Epic, and cuz it's a good looking game and I could maybe get some neat screenies, but I dropped it after less than an hour.
Gameplay is monotonous, with bad same-y level design and lackluster combat. There are 5 enemy types, and 4 of them are of the "charge you and attack" type. They're also spongy, unless you use the shotgun or the rifle, since those can oneshot anything. But you're not guaranteed a reliable supply of ammo for any of the guns. Because all ammo drops are random, so you regularly end up getting ammo you're already full up on, while other ammo types don't drop for extended periods of time.
As for imsim elements, there's no stealth, no hacking, or powers, or lockpicking, or any alternate method of solving problems. Just shooting. There's one puzzle at the start where you have to find chemicals and mix them to create a rust remover, but the chemicals are in vending machines only three rooms apart, and this mechanic is never used again. Two mandatory instances of stacking boxes to progress, and like a handful of finding a valve to open a door.
It's buggy, sometimes to the point of softlocking you. It runs poorly. It's also only like 2-2.5 hours long and then just ends in a highly unsatisfying cliffhanger. It's got ambition, sure, but the devs imo bit off more than they can chew.
I also tried Callisto Protocol, again cuz free on Epic, and cuz it's a good looking game and I could maybe get some neat screenies, but I dropped it after less than an hour.
Huh, that's a weird coincidence. I decided to grab Space Marine 1 on GOG because they're having a huge sale on 40K games for... some reason, and it just finished installing. I was waiting for a sale deliberately, but since I've played pretty much all the Call of Duty games from that console generation, I'm sure it'll be better than at least some of them.
*Wide* linear, to be specific.
Funny revisiting this talk now -
The comments are overflowing with DSP insults.
They might as well not even bothered, because DSP still had trouble navigating Ragnarok.
Got Terminator: Resistance for $10 on the Steam sale. After playing the opening level and a couple missions after the first “hub” area, I think it’s safe to say I would have requested a refund if I’d paid any more than that. It’s not “bad” by any stretch, but also little more than a derivative Terminator-themed riff on the FPS single player genre of the last two decades. It’s got some STALKER meta RPG-lite stuff with resource gathering, crafting, the cinematic presentation and funneled level design of countless IP’s, skill trees, etc. I can sense the design bloat already, and the shooting itself is serviceable at best with enemies that are so far kinda boring. It’s not something I’m itching to get back into, but I might feel a bit like scratching every now and then. There was clearly some passion involved in making it and especially on a budget, so it’s worth a keep at least.
Also booted up MK1 for the first time in months, though mostly due to an ongoing Elden Ring/dlc fixation which I’m finally taking a breather from. Max was right; Takeda is really fun! They also added some new if small features to Invasions, which if nothing else encourage using more of the broad cast. I might dig into Baraka some more after finding a really neat “Epic” level outfit (yeah I’m a sucker for shit like this but along with the “Rare” tier these duds are a clear step up creatively from pallet swaps typically found).
Also booted up MK1 for the first time in months, though mostly due to an ongoing Elden Ring/dlc fixation which I’m finally taking a breather from. Max was right; Takeda is really fun! They also added some new if small features to Invasions, which if nothing else encourage using more of the broad cast. I might dig into Baraka some more after finding a really neat “Epic” level outfit (yeah I’m a sucker for shit like this but along with the “Rare” tier these duds are a clear step up creatively from pallet swaps typically found).
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I do hear the gain does get better. Just a little after the quarterway point when you are better equipped and get laser weaponry.
Space Marine: As a preface to this post, the game is fun and I'm probably going to play through it, but having played Doom 4 and Doom Eternal, it's hard not to see Space Marine's execution mechanic as being an extremely rough alpha-test version of the Glory Kills from those games. There's two major issues that I have with their execution (ha) in SM. The first is that you have to perform a specific 'stun' attack before you can execute enemies, which requires you to be up close (not an issue) and to actually do it while performing your regular combos, and also hope that the enemy you want to execute has low enough health they'll be stunned without having so little health that the stun attack will kill them outright, which it often will. And God-Emperor help you if your allies decide to kill the stunned enemy you were trying to execute for health.
The second, and much larger, issue is that execution animations are really long, and you don't get I-frames during them, meaning you can take damage and even die while attempting to get your health back. Which is seriously messed up. It should not have taken five years to figure out that dying while you're healing sucks. And, for another comparison, Nero's Devil Bringer animations don't make him invulnerable, but they're not his exclusive method of healing. And speaking of exclusive, if you're at critical health in NuDoom, enemies will drop a few health packs even if you kill them the normal way, so you don't need to get Glory Kills in order to recover your health if you're that desperate in that (much better) game.
I don't know if SM2 fixes those issues, but I'm hoping (for the people here who are going to play it before I do) that it at least alleviates them. And to reiterate, these aren't game-ruining issues, they're just-- well, there's a whole thread for that. (If you came here from that one, I made this post first and copied it into that thread.)
The second, and much larger, issue is that execution animations are really long, and you don't get I-frames during them, meaning you can take damage and even die while attempting to get your health back. Which is seriously messed up. It should not have taken five years to figure out that dying while you're healing sucks. And, for another comparison, Nero's Devil Bringer animations don't make him invulnerable, but they're not his exclusive method of healing. And speaking of exclusive, if you're at critical health in NuDoom, enemies will drop a few health packs even if you kill them the normal way, so you don't need to get Glory Kills in order to recover your health if you're that desperate in that (much better) game.
I don't know if SM2 fixes those issues, but I'm hoping (for the people here who are going to play it before I do) that it at least alleviates them. And to reiterate, these aren't game-ruining issues, they're just-- well, there's a whole thread for that. (If you came here from that one, I made this post first and copied it into that thread.)
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It's ironic you mention all that, as plenty of people have said that the newer Doom games are the best WarHammer/Space Marine games ever made.
Plus it was always best to do his executions if they are either air ones, other enemies are dates, or you're far away enough from the other lesser demons.
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I haven’t played any Warhammer games but from the looks of it they’re at least a better version of Gears of War. The new DOOM games are the defacto template for FPS version though.
And Gears of War was inspired by Warhammer. Talk about extra irony.
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No, they are designed around not taking cover (at least till the second half) The gears shooter is what popularized the cover based shooting that everyone was doing for awhile there and Space Marine specifically was going against that since everyone was back then since there was a backlash to that kinda gameplay since it was so common.
As someone who grew up in a small village near Skegness in Lincolnshire, I need to know, Is everyone you meet openly racist, homophobic and totally unaccepting of strangers?
If not, it is not an accurate representation of a small British village and that will totally break my immersion if I ever play this game.
In Gears of War, you take cover. In Space Marine, you are the cover.
So, as home prices are insane at this time, my daughter spent nearly 4 years living in my house addition where my PS4 Pro is and I've barely touched it. Well, she just moved out and got a home!!! But, being selfish, the real news is I got my home theater/game room back! For now. We'll see if someone else (my boy's new wife) wants the space soon. ITMT I played about 5 hours of Uncharted 4 today. Just kicked back, had some 12% beer and ice cream and moved back and forth between the game and a youtube walk through and made it to part 9. Just such a hoot. Some of the last, best gaming I've done is the Tomb Raider reboot and this reminds me of the best of that. I hated old Tomb Raider. The challenge in that could be jumping from space to space. These people are supposed to be great at this stuff. Well, new Tomb Raider and Uncharted? Jumping through the terrain is a hoot. Can't wait to play some more.
Astro Bot
It's fun, but for a dedicated game now it lacks its own identity, primarily coasting off of the recognition of other game characters. And in that it is kinda wonderful finding old favourites. And the gatcha machine this time allows you to get them their personal items, like Rivet's hammer, or Jak's... Daxter, which results in a cute response if you then smack them.
It doesn't do anything new other then give the promise that maybe Sony still has some eye for its old neglected IPs. And perhaps that's enough (ontop of the fun responsive platforming). Playing an Ape Escape level again was like finding an old family foto.
It's fun, but for a dedicated game now it lacks its own identity, primarily coasting off of the recognition of other game characters. And in that it is kinda wonderful finding old favourites. And the gatcha machine this time allows you to get them their personal items, like Rivet's hammer, or Jak's... Daxter, which results in a cute response if you then smack them.
It doesn't do anything new other then give the promise that maybe Sony still has some eye for its old neglected IPs. And perhaps that's enough (ontop of the fun responsive platforming). Playing an Ape Escape level again was like finding an old family foto.
I can live with all that, because it is better than any of Sony's live service shit. I'll pick this up later.