What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finally playing Hue, a game I bought on sale some years ago but never got around trying. I'm getting Thomas Was Alone vibes.

It's a very elementary puzzle-platform game, designed entirely around changing the color of the background, which removes objects of that color while baring everything else. Starts out simple enough with having you reveal platforms or remove barriers, until the puzzles introduce hazards and soft locks that require some forethought and synchronicity. Not quite Braid 4D chess, but it's engaging enough. I think the game benefits from focusing on a single gameplay mechanic and making the most of it without ever complicating it too much.

I don't think there's much to the story but the game makes the most of it with very little, including a decent, somewhat mawkish voice over narration (waxing philosophically about perception and whatnot) and some melancholy piano plinking.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Don't let the naysayers push you away on this one- the game is freaking awesome. Enjoy!

I mean, parts of it are awesome - Odin and that new Spear kick ass - but the bloat, both narratively and gameplay wise, weighs heavily on this game. Also, Kratos is really kinda boring in this game. I heard that for GoW '18 the developers were trying to not turn him into this wise old sage, but for Ragnarok that's unfortunately what happened. Valhalla picks him up though.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Playing more Baldur's Gate 3, and I can't get enough of chiseling my crew into their best selves. I even got Shadowheart to be useful by turning her into a radiant nuke. And having two (or even one) character with Hunger of Hadar and another with Sleet Storm allows you to turn the ground into a bloody meat grinder. It's hilarious watching enemies try to make their way through that shit.

 

[laggyteabag]

I finished up my replay of God of War (2018). I think it is a great game, the story is well told and well delivered, and the combat is an obvious highlight, but I don't like it as much as I wish I did, and I definitely don't like it as much as other people. I've been trying to put my finger on it, and I think it mostly comes down to that I find the game to be kind of ugly, to the point where it actually detracts from my enjoyment of the game. Its technically impressive, but the game is so washed out that the game is the visual equivalent of an overcast day, though there are some obvious exceptions.

I also played Thank Goodness You're Here, which is that recent British humour indie game. It definitely got more than a few chuckles out of me, and it is very clear that this was a passion project for the devs. As a Brit, it was really just nice to see a small UK town faithfully recreated in a videogame; im not sure that I have ever seen this before. The only word of "warning" is that this game is very short (about 2-3 hours), so judge the price accordingly.

And just to tide me over until Space Marine 2, I have been replaying Space Marine 1. I think it holds up fine, but I wish there was more to it. The guns are fairly unexciting, the melee doesn't really have much to it other than spamming the same linear "combo", and I generally just wish that the game was much more visceral. The character models and weapons look great, especially considering that it is a 360-era game, but the environments are missing a lot of the microdetail that I would expect from a 40K game, which means that whilst the game takes place on what is literally a factory world, it often feels less like a 40K factory, and more like a generic factory with the occasional skull carving or gothic window. I will say though that I really enjoyed the factory announcement lady who would occasionally chime in to say some really draconian stuff like "Attention all workers: Despite the planetary invasion, you must still attend your shifts. Quotas must be met", or "workers grade 8 and below are not eligible for medical attention". Otherwise, the story is your fairly normal 40K shenanigans, but it is pretty well paced actually. Its not overly long, and I am almost done with it.

Next up, im not so sure. Space Marine 2 is coming out on the 9th, so I don't want to start anything massive only to drop it half-way through. It'll have to be something short, or something that I don't mind leaving for a while. Maybe Dredge on the Steam Deck?

 

[Casual Shinji]

I finished up my replay of God of War (2018). I think it is a great game, the story is well told and well delivered, and the combat is an obvious highlight, but I don't like it as much as I wish I did, and I definitely don't like it as much as other people. I've been trying to put my finger on it, and I think it mostly comes down to that I find the game to be kind of ugly, to the point where it actually detracts from my enjoyment of the game. Its technically impressive, but the game is so washed out that the game is the visual equivalent of an overcast day, though there are some obvious exceptions.

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.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I mean, parts of it are awesome - Odin and that new Spear kick ass - but the bloat, both narratively and gameplay wise, weighs heavily on this game. Also, Kratos is really kinda boring in this game. I heard that for GoW '18 the developers were trying to not turn him into this wise old sage, but for Ragnarok that's unfortunately what happened. Valhalla picks him up though.

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.

 

[Casual Shinji]

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.

Yeah, but within the realm of linear games it's a giant sausage that can barely support its own weight.

 

[Chimpzy]

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.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

And just to tide me over until Space Marine 2, I have been replaying Space Marine 1. I think it holds up fine, but I wish there was more to it. The guns are fairly unexciting, the melee doesn't really have much to it other than spamming the same linear "combo", and I generally just wish that the game was much more visceral. The character models and weapons look great, especially considering that it is a 360-era game, but the environments are missing a lot of the microdetail that I would expect from a 40K game, which means that whilst the game takes place on what is literally a factory world, it often feels less like a 40K factory, and more like a generic factory with the occasional skull carving or gothic window. I will say though that I really enjoyed the factory announcement lady who would occasionally chime in to say some really draconian stuff like "Attention all workers: Despite the planetary invasion, you must still attend your shifts. Quotas must be met", or "workers grade 8 and below are not eligible for medical attention". Otherwise, the story is your fairly normal 40K shenanigans, but it is pretty well paced actually. Its not overly long, and I am almost done with it.

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.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Yeah, but within the realm of linear games it's a giant sausage that can barely support its own weight.

*Wide* linear, to be specific.

Funny revisiting this talk now -



The comments are overflowing with DSP insults.

 

[BrawlMan]

The comments are overflowing with DSP insults.

They might as well not even bothered, because DSP still had trouble navigating Ragnarok.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

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).

 

[BrawlMan]

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.

I do hear the gain does get better. Just a little after the quarterway point when you are better equipped and get laser weaponry.

​

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I'm towards the end of the main campaign of Tales of Arise and lemme tell you- the story/character hooked me. I'm in. If you're into the whole jRPG thing, give it a look-see.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

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.)

 

[BrawlMan]

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.

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.

And, for another comparison, Nero's Devil Bringer animations don't make him invulnerable, but they're not his exclusive method of healing

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.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

It's I write 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.

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.

 

[BrawlMan]

they’re at least a better version of Gears of War

And Gears of War was inspired by Warhammer. Talk about extra irony.

 

[Worgen]

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.

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.

 

[Catfood220]

I also played Thank Goodness You're Here, which is that recent British humour indie game. It definitely got more than a few chuckles out of me, and it is very clear that this was a passion project for the devs. As a Brit, it was really just nice to see a small UK town faithfully recreated in a videogame; im not sure that I have ever seen this before. The only word of "warning" is that this game is very short (about 2-3 hours), so judge the price accordingly.

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.