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laggyteabag

Scrolling through forums, instead of playing games
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Trust me, the changes Legendary Edition made to Mass Effect 1s combat upgraded it from Janky to Serviceable. In the old one, unless you had weapon proficiency and ranks, your reticle would spin all over the place; it was fucking absurd.
The first time I played Mass Effect 1, I loved it to bits.

The second time I played it - having since played through Mass Effect 2 and 3 - I couldn't stomach it. So I ditched it part-way through, downloaded a save with all of the choices I wanted to make, and just skipped straight to ME2. And that is how I've been replaying the Mass Effect games for a decade since, until the LE came out.

I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate the gameplay changes to Mass Effect 1 in the LE. Even just being serviceable has literally saved the game for me.
 

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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The first time I played Mass Effect 1, I loved it to bits.

The second time I played it - having since played through Mass Effect 2 and 3 - I couldn't stomach it. So I ditched it part-way through, downloaded a save with all of the choices I wanted to make, and just skipped straight to ME2. And that is how I've been replaying the Mass Effect games for a decade since, until the LE came out.

I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate the gameplay changes to Mass Effect 1 in the LE. Even just being serviceable has literally saved the game for me.
Agreed. I have replayed Mass Effect 1 LE more times this year than I ever played the original when it was fresh on the Xbox.
 
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Xprimentyl

Made you look...
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Started Watchdogs 2 yesterday. It's been SOOO long since I played a game like this, and between trying to reprogram my brain away from Elden Ring controls and Ubisoft's overly complicated interfaces and unintuitive menus, the struggle is real. I really liked the first Watchdogs, so I'm going to stick with this one as long as I can, but already, I'm not a fan of the vibe, being a part a 20-somethings rebel hacking group. I prefer the lone wolf vigilante aura of the first title; this so far feels like I'm just one a of bunch of techie punks.
 
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Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
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Beat Persona 5 Royal yesterday. Holy crap, its so good, but I also feel like I missed a lot of stuff. Its damp tempting to try Newgame+, I probably will, at least to see what carries over since I'm not sure I'm up for another 130 hours. But, I also really want to know what things I missed. But, on the other hand, I do have Persona 5 strikers, which I'm looking forward too. Decisions.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Still trudging through TLoU2, forever cutting through a ruined building to get to the next ruined building.

Playing this is a lot like being in my 20s, doing something that I like while hanging out with someone I don't like. You know you're going to go somewhere or do something you'll enjoy, and you've accepted this friend of a friend is gonna be a part of it. So you're mentally prepared to enjoy the good and suck up the bad, which makes the inevitable point where you go "Dude, what the fuck?" so much more disheartening.

I had this reaction to Day 3, when Ellie basically chooses to go after Abby over saving Tommy, while also telling Jesse she'd do the same thing to him (plus "I'm not saving you again") and by extension the very preggo and very sick Dina. Even though the whole reason why the three of them don't immediately turn back to Jackson as soon as Dina gets sick is "Because it's my fault Tommy is in danger". So screw Tommy, screw Jesse and screw Dina I guess.

See I don't get much of a reaction from seeing Abby beat Joel to death, or seeing Ellie do the same thing to Nora later. Yes, violence is pointless, revenge is pointless, etc. But this is between people who're nothing but enemies to each other.
Ellie betraying friends and family in order to avenge friends and family is just vile and where she finally loses me. I was turning in for the night at that point anyway but man if I didn't quit the game in disgust.
 
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Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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Still trudging through TLoU2, forever cutting through a ruined building to get to the next ruined building.

Playing this is a lot like being in my 20s, doing something that I like while hanging out with someone I don't like. You know you're going to go somewhere or do something you'll enjoy, and you've accepted this friend of a friend is gonna be a part of it. So you're mentally prepared to enjoy the good and suck up the bad, which makes the inevitable point where you go "Dude, what the fuck?" so much more disheartening.

I had this reaction to Day 3, when Ellie basically chooses to go after Abby over saving Tommy, while also telling Jesse she'd do the same thing to him (plus "I'm not saving you again") and by extension the very preggo and very sick Dina. Even though the whole reason why the three of them don't immediately turn back to Jackson as soon as Dina gets sick is "Because it's my fault Tommy is in danger". So screw Tommy, screw Jesse and screw Dina I guess.

See I don't get much of a reaction from seeing Abby beat Joel to death, or seeing Ellie do the same thing to Nora later. Yes, violence is pointless, revenge is pointless, etc. But this is between people who're nothing but enemies to each other.
Ellie betraying friends and family in order to avenge friends and family is just vile and where she finally loses me. I was turning in for the night at that point anyway but man if I didn't quit the game in disgust.
See, I reached this point in the game the instant Ellie decided to go out for revenge. The moment right after Joel's death where she's talking to Tommy about going after them to kill them. This felt like such a betrayal of Ellie's character, treating her like she's this sheltered daddy's girl who only ever knew her father, and is now willing to give everything just to avenge him. Same for Tommy honestly - This guy is a pillar of his community, and is now ready to abandon both his community and his bleedin' wife just because his brother got killed?! No, this is stupid.

The game treats Joel like he's this religious symbol, and his death as this hellish act. But Joel is just... a guy in this setting. Sure, he's a tough guy and likely important to a bunch of people in Jackson, but's he's not their be-all end-all, not even Ellie's. It's the impact and importance of Joel to the gaming community being transposed onto him within the world he inhabits, and it's the gaming community's rage and hatred at his murder being transposed onto Ellie. Ellie actually having a story of her own gets its throat slit so she can become the vessel for TLoU fans' anger at losing Joel. For a game raised up for having a strong female character it treats said female character as this brainless twit driven by her irrational emotions. Good job Naughty Dog.

Anyway, have fun with the at least more engaging Abby storyline (up to a point). I was so fucking sick of Ellie's shitty character writing by that point I would've taken a dead rat as a playable character over her.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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See, I reached this point in the game the instant Ellie decided to go out for revenge. The moment right after Joel's death where she's talking to Tommy about going after them to kill them. This felt like such a betrayal of Ellie's character, treating her like she's this sheltered daddy's girl who only ever knew her father, and is now willing to give everything just to avenge him. Same for Tommy honestly - This guy is a pillar of his community, and is now ready to abandon both his community and his bleedin' wife just because his brother got killed?! No, this is stupid.

The game treats Joel like he's this religious symbol, and his death as this hellish act. But Joel is just... a guy in this setting. Sure, he's a tough guy and likely important to a bunch of people in Jackson, but's he's not their be-all end-all, not even Ellie's. It's the impact and importance of Joel to the gaming community being transposed onto him within the world he inhabits, and it's the gaming community's rage and hatred at his murder being transposed onto Ellie. Ellie actually having a story of her own gets its throat slit so she can become the vessel for TLoU fans' anger at losing Joel. For a game raised up for having a strong female character it treats said female character as this brainless twit driven by her irrational emotions. Good job Naughty Dog.

Anyway, have fun with the at least more engaging Abby storyline (up to a point). I was so fucking sick of Ellie's shitty character writing by that point I would've taken a dead rat as a playable character over her.
I think I would've had a similar reaction to yours if the nature and the manner of Ellie's quest for revenge hadn't been spoiled to me years ago. So instead I'm reacting to the parts that are freshly shocking to me; namely Ellie betraying all three of her allies in different ways (and unbeknownst to most of them) in a single, casual scene.

As to *that* death I didn't get the impression it shook the community to the core like that. It's understandable from Ellie, Tommy, Maria and a couple of Ellie's friends but that's about it really, I don't think we see anybody else react to it. We see all those flowers at the house but we don't know how deferent that ritual is from any other death.
 
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BrawlMan

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For a game raised up for having a strong female character it treats said female character as this brainless twit driven by her irrational emotions. Good job Naughty Dog.

Anyway, have fun with the at least more engaging Abby storyline (up to a point). I was so fucking sick of Ellie's shitty character writing by that point I would've taken a dead rat as a playable character over her.
I think I would've had a similar reaction to yours if the nature and the manner of Ellie's quest for revenge hadn't been spoiled to me years ago. So instead I'm reacting to the parts that are freshly shocking to me; namely Ellie betraying all three of her allies in different ways (and unbeknownst to most of them) in a single, casual scene.

As to *that* death I didn't get the impression it shook the community to the core like that. It's understandable from Ellie, Tommy, Maria and a couple of Ellie's friends but that's about it really, I don't think we see anybody else react to it. We see all those flowers at the house but we don't know how deferent that ritual is from any other death.
Yeah, nearly everyone sucks in TLOUS2. It's why the second game does not exist to me.
 
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BrawlMan

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I did a 1CC high score run of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter with Ken and Dark Sakura. I managed to beat Cyber Akuma without losing a partner. My final score is 830, 330. So I beat my old high score! I pulled a Raging Demon on Hulk a few matches beforehand.
 

Piscian

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I finally finished Like a Dragon infinite wealth. 230 fucking hours and I didn't even 100%. Im just a real turtle when it comes to games. Im like a developers wet dream, like Im that one gamer who literally chases butterflies you put in games.

Been pretty depressed with work stress, but new free games came out on PSN, gonna check out this "Doki doki literature club", anime game with cute girls outa cheer me up.
 

Bob_McMillan

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I prefer the lone wolf vigilante aura of the first title; this so far feels like I'm just one a of bunch of techie punks.
Yeah, that'll never change. I gave up on trying to roleplay almost immediately and just used all the lethal options I could find. Probably murdered like a thousand people in the game. I still found the game rather fun though. It feels like we don't really get actual stealth focused games anymore.
 

BrawlMan

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I did a 1CC high score run of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter with Ken and Dark Sakura. I managed to beat Cyber Akuma without losing a partner. My final score is 830, 330. So I beat my old high score! I pulled a Raging Demon on Hulk a few matches beforehand.
Did another run and played the Japanese version. It's the only version that has Norimaro. I did a tag team of him and Dhalsim. Norimaro is even bigger joke character than Dan. I know the character is love him or hate him, but I find Nori somewhat entertaining. For those that don't know, he was a 90s Japanese comedian that's the equivalent of Pee Wee Herman.

 

Casual Shinji

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I think I would've had a similar reaction to yours if the nature and the manner of Ellie's quest for revenge hadn't been spoiled to me years ago. So instead I'm reacting to the parts that are freshly shocking to me; namely Ellie betraying all three of her allies in different ways (and unbeknownst to most of them) in a single, casual scene.
I would've been actually shocked by Ellie betraying her allies if both Dina and Jesse didn't exist almost solely for her character. Dina is the girlfriend and Jesse is the best friend; there's little else that defines them as characters, and throughout the game they do very little to change or break out of that role. Dina and Jesse have a pretty long history together, and despite their break-up you'd think there'd be some kind of dynamic between the two when they meet up again, but there's almost no interaction between them. You'd think Jesse realizing Dina might bring his child onto the world would actually make him put his foot down with Ellie and say 'no, we're leaving NOW', but no. Both of them will say 'I don't know Ellie', but then go along with what she says anyway.

Can't say I felt too bad when Jesse got clipped since the dude was just clinging to the back of Ellie's shoe like an empty plastic bag anyway. But then by that point I was exhausted by the game's obnoxious attempts at shock and drama anyway.

As to *that* death I didn't get the impression it shook the community to the core like that. It's understandable from Ellie, Tommy, Maria and a couple of Ellie's friends but that's about it really, I don't think we see anybody else react to it. We see all those flowers at the house but we don't know how deferent that ritual is from any other death.
It's more than that. It's how the game itself frames Joel and how this bleeds into both Ellie and Tommy. When Ellie enters his house it's treated like this shrine almost where the walls are adorned with pictures of horses, and guitars, and woodwork. And every other scene we see Joel in the game treats him with this constant deference. Even if it's through Ellie's perspective, Ellie knew who he was. She loved him, but she never once lied to herself to make him seem better than he actually was. Yet the game can't seem to stop fawning over him, and in turn use that to fuel Ellie's motivation for revenge.

And thanks for bringing up the flowers, because that's another example of the game wanting a moment for the sake of emotion eventhough it makes little sense. Like where the hell did all those flowers come from? It's winter! Are they plastic? Where the heck did they get this many plastic flowers from? Naughty Dog wants to show how realistic and grounded their world is, but then it pulls something like this for sacharine points. Same with the museum, and I actually quite liked that one, but it still makes no damn sense.
 

Bartholen

At age 6 I was born without a face
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Finished ME2 Legendary on Insanity, final playtime about 17 hours with every squadmate surviving the final mission. Like I mentioned previously, the issue with the Insanity difficulty is that it starts at maximum, and therefore basically plateaus from the word go. As such, depending how you look at it, there either is no difficulty curve whatsoever, or there is one - downwards. But I imagine the class choice is actually what makes the biggest difference on Insanity. The Mattock + Adrenaline Rush combo with the Soldier's access to ammo types is so preposterously OP that it almost feels like a cheat code. In the final mission the collectors just melted before my eyes, and I trounced the final boss in like a minute. Whereas playing the Sentinel class on Hardcore I remember the Vorcha on Omega proving a massive difficulty spike due to their regeneration.

Ultimately Insanity felt a bit tedious to play, because the solution to every situation was always the same: take Miranda because she has both Warp and Overload, spam Adrenaline Rush like there's no tomorrow, and use Barrier as a panic button for instant shield recovery. The Arc Thrower was also incredibly vital, because it could hit enemies behind cover, and stun entire groups at once. There weren't many situations where I felt I needed any significant switchup in approach, except for one specific enemy: Husks. On Insanity they become one of the most dangerous enemies in the game because they all gain a layer of armor, and can swarm you in seconds if you're now careful. But sections where that becomes central can be counted on like on hand across the entire game, so it's not a big deal. Using Inferno Ammo to first strip them of their armor, and using Thane's Throw Field to instakill entire groups at once was quite tactically satisfying.

Anyway, on to ME3 on Insanity in the near future. It's what I'm most curious about, because even on Normal you can die pretty damn quickly, so maybe it'll finally put my 1337 hax0r skills to the test.
 
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BrawlMan

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I've been playing the update for Gungrave GORE.


The update (announced 4 months ago) that makes GG GORE on PS5/4, Series X, and PC makes it play more like Switch version (with none of the drawbacks), just shadow dropped today. This makes the Switch version even more pointless now. Rocket Billy and Harry McDowell are paid DLC characters, and Grave gets a Street costume. Harry is just a palette swap of Young Brandon, so I will never pay for him.

Short version: this update makes the game play more like Gungrave Overdose than the OG. Meaning Grave runs much faster and the running animation is his default speed, instead of pushing in the LS/L3 to run. The game does the combo mechanic from DmC (2013) where the higher your combo/beat counter score is (called the Full Break System, where every 100 shots adds a new level to FBS), the faster your character becomes. There is no way to turn this off, if you want to play the original system where Grave moves slower. I wish they had that as an option, but I get why they did it. Gameplay and character consistency.

Iggy Mob did some gameplay re-balancing. Your beat combo lasts much longer, which makes getting high ranks easier, though I still think the system is flawed. The updates just makes them slightly more bearable and actually possible now.


@Old_Hunter_77, @CriticalGaming, @Elvis Starburst, and @hanselthecaretaker2, the game is on sale right now at PSN for $5.99. Free for PS+ users if you're interested and wanna play a fun arcade shooter. They already got rid of all the bad platforming and one hit killer lasers. You can't even fall off the train anymore, so that's a win in my book. So the game is worth

 
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Drathnoxis

I love the smell of card games in the morning
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Still playing the Best Game of All Time. Why does this game need RPG mechanics? I never thought while playing any of the other games in the series "gee I wish I could collect a bunch of junk to upgrade equipment stats and spend 15 minutes deciding what sort of build to use!" What better way to ruin an action game than stats and levels. And where are my chain swords? An infinitely throwable axe just isn't as cool.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Started Persona 5 Strikers. I'm still pretty early on in it, but its certainly an interesting combination of Dynasty Warriors with Persona gameplay and it seems to work pretty well. While the combat is good, there is something off feeling about the rest, it does use almost the same sound track as the normal game, which is good since its a great sound track, but the character portraits seem similar but strangely less good. Like, with Morgana, his mouth seems to move weird and not have as good a shape for some poses as the normal game. Also the ui doesn't seem to be properly sized up to high res so its got a slight blurryness to it, and some of the voice lines in the cut scenes are weirdly quiet so the music overpowers them. Nothing like that happened in the normal game.
 

NerfedFalcon

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I cleared a normal-difficulty raid solo in Old School Runescape for the first time last night. I've been on raids before, but only as part of a group, so I'm always being carried by better players with higher numbers. Clearing a solo raid is definitely an achievement, though I don't think I'm ready yet to start trying to grind out the raid for its unique drops. Still, once in a while to keep my edge is fun, and with another time-limited Leagues mode approaching this year, I'm going to need my edge more than ever.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. About to move house, and I don't know what the situation's going to be like for the first few days; whether my Internet connection will support serious online games, whether my Playstation and Switch will be set up, that sort of thing. So I don't want to start too much in case I don't finish it, and that's left me just playing Runescape for a while.
 
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Piscian

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Im having the same issue with Doki Doki Literature that I had with 13 sentinels. I don't mind reading, but man I can not do endlessly clicking through dialog.

With games Yakuza its ok if "its story time" as long as I can set it on auto and just sit there reading like its a book, but Doki is another one of those visual novels where you have click "ok" on every..fucking.. sentence.. and this can go on for 40 lines of dialog. This game is supposed to be all triggery but Im not sure they meant for me to want to die this early in the game.
 
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Piscian

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Im having the same issue with Doki Doki Literature that I had with 13 sentinels. I don't mind reading, but man I can not do endlessly clicking through dialog.

With games Yakuza its ok if "its story time" as long as I can set it on auto and just sit there reading like its a book, but Doki is another one of those visual novels where you have click "ok" on every..fucking.. sentence.. and this can go on for 40 lines of dialog. This game is supposed to be all triggery but Im not sure they meant for me to want to die this early in the game.

oops nvm found the auto button. Thank fuckin god.
 
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