What are you currently playing?

[Bob_McMillan]

I'm on Night 80 something in Hades 2. My gripes with the story, and the story game mechanics, are pissing me off more and more.

I'm also more certain now that I am not the biggest fan of the new combat system. It has more layers, and seemingly adds more variety, but you spend like 99% of your time using your Omega moves, so it ends up being just as button mashy as the first game except this time you're holding the button down more.

I'm still planning to get the real ending, but more from a sense of wanting to check it off the list rather than wanting to see more of these characters. Kinda sad.

 

[meiam]

I'm on Night 80 something in Hades 2. My gripes with the story, and the story game mechanics, are pissing me off more and more.

I'm also more certain now that I am not the biggest fan of the new combat system. It has more layers, and seemingly adds more variety, but you spend like 99% of your time using your Omega moves, so it ends up being just as button mashy as the first game except this time you're holding the button down more.

I'm still planning to get the real ending, but more from a sense of wanting to check it off the list rather than wanting to see more of these characters. Kinda sad.

How much you use omega move really depend on the weapon, for most of them I barely ever use them, the staff is about the only one that really benefit from them (and the staff is kinda poop anyway, except for the hidden I suppose), the knives you just use them for gap closing, the torch are used as part of the basic attack, you just have to use the special one like every 10 sec, its not worth using on most version of the axe and the cloak just suck all around but the charges extra suck for most versions.

But the story is very meh honestly, not sure what you mean by real ending but I just got the really last story sequence in the game and it finish on a revelation that just makes no sense.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Ball x Pit

Yyeeahhh.... no thanks lol

This was the game that was the sole focus of the last Devolver Digital showcase during the last Summers Games Fest. And my immediate and correct reaction was "oh look, it's Trendy Indy Game: The Game." This game looks like it's to indy games what any recent Ubisoft game is to AAA games- a mush of all the things that seem to trend with popular things.

Don't get me wrong- I'm sure I'd enjoy this for 5-10 hours. I'm not proud of it, though.

I understand, not only quite well, but even that feeling from the devolver digital video. It did seem like a weird overfocus for them to do, and tbh the footage didn't even look that appealing anyway. But I've made that mistake a few times in the past before, thinking anything that's over-pushed/hyped/focused on must inherently be shit. And while that's the case most the time, it isn't all the time. Like the band Muse, I completely blanked for years cos the one song they kept playing just didn't sound good yet people kept singing their praises. It wasn't till someone put on a whole album (their early albums) that I was like "why weren't you pushing any of these superior tracks on the air every damn day!" (Gone back to ignoring the band's output now though that's a whole different thing hah)

So basically cos of such moments am much more willing to repress those reactive instincts in me and try to give everything a fair shake nowadays first. Do not fear or hate, merely investigate.

Also there was a trial for the game, on a sub, which may have been the pivotal factor here lol

 

[Bartholen]

After like 2 years and 100 hours of gameplay, I finally cleared Ascension 20 in Slay The Spire. It's the final level of the challenge mode where you pile up increasingly harsh difficulty modifiers on the game. I used to just mechanically put it on, and just attempt it again and again. Now that I've finally done it, I feel free.

 

[Worgen]

After like 2 years and 100 hours of gameplay, I finally cleared Ascension 20 in Slay The Spire. It's the final level of the challenge mode where you pile up increasingly harsh difficulty modifiers on the game. I used to just mechanically put it on, and just attempt it again and again. Now that I've finally done it, I feel free.

Congrats, now its time for Cobalt Core.

 

[Ezekiel]

Playing Devil May Cry 2 for the first time, the only one I have left. It's so boring. So easy. Can't raise the difficulty. Can't turn during a combo for some dumb reason. You swing the sword and then have to wait for him to return to the default stance before attacking in another direction. Maybe they want me to use the lock-on system all the time. That's not how it's supposed to be used. Starter moveset far too limited. First two levels had no fun enemies.

 

[BrawlMan]

Playing Devil May Cry 2 for the first time, the only one I have left. It's so boring. So easy. Can't raise the difficulty. Can't turn during a combo for some dumb reason. You swing the sword and then have to wait for him to return to the default stance before attacking in another direction. Maybe they want me to use the lock-on system all the time. That's not how it's supposed to be used. Starter moveset far too limited. First two levels had no fun enemies.

This game uses the dumb directional input system. The game only gets "fun" when you get to hard mode. Chaos Legion and Bujingai are better DMC games than 2.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Playing Devil May Cry 2 for the first time, the only one I have left. It's so boring. So easy. Can't raise the difficulty. Can't turn during a combo for some dumb reason. You swing the sword and then have to wait for him to return to the default stance before attacking in another direction. Maybe they want me to use the lock-on system all the time. That's not how it's supposed to be used. Starter moveset far too limited. First two levels had no fun enemies.

I wouldn't even wish Devil May Cry 2 on my worst enemy. I liked Sonic 06 better. That's how bad it is.

You probably won't listen to me, but seriously, save yourself the trouble. There is literally one good thing in this game, it's right at the end, and you can see it on Youtube. In fact, here it is:

 

[Worgen]

Picked up the Gradius Collection again and beat Gradius 2 and 3. 2 was easier then I was expecting considering the series reputation. 3 though, I knew it was supposed to be hard but that is brutally difficult and long. Hard enough to not be fun, harder if you don't have enough speed, which sucks since a too much speed also is brutal since you have a lot of tight maneuvering you have to do and the controls aren't as tight as a newer shooter.

 

[thebobmaster]

I should play some Gradius games at some point. Main thing I know about them is that in Gradius III, if you are playing on the SNES, the Konami Code works! ...If you use the shoulder buttons instead of left, right, left, right.

Up, Up, Down, Down, L, R, L, R, B, A, Start during gameplay? Full Power up.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start during gameplay? That's the suicide code.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Playing Lone Survivor, a game so old it came out before Bee Movie became a meme.

I imagine by this point everybody's played it or deliberately forsaken it. You play a lonely dude in a face mask hoveled inside his apartment living off crackers and slowly losing his sanity as the apocalypse rages on throughout the building and the outside world, and I still haven't seen a single paycheck. Go figure.

It's a very Silent Hill-y affair, except it's 2D and it's kinda hard to make sense of the map, which displays a bird's eye view of the apartment building. And you're on a timer of sorts, since you're constantly going hungry or sleepy or running out of batteries for your flashlight. That part's a bit annoying but it's not clear what failure entails yet. The game's very cryptic about how exactly it is governed by tradeoffs and fail states.

Eerie stuff.

I remember Extra Credits and/or Jim Sterling talking about that game and always intended to check it out but never did. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

 

[Worgen]

I should play some Gradius games at some point. Main thing I know about them is that in Gradius III, if you are playing on the SNES, the Konami Code works! ...If you use the shoulder buttons instead of left, right, left, right.

Up, Up, Down, Down, L, R, L, R, B, A, Start during gameplay? Full Power up.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start during gameplay? That's the suicide code.

The Gradius Collection has the arcade games, no snes or nes, which is unfortunate since new Lifeforce is one of my faves. Not sure if that code would work on Gradius 3, but rewind does, which is good cause I would not put in the years needed to beat that stupid game without it.

 

[thebobmaster]

Played a couple rounds of a Steam demo for an upcoming game called Slots and Daggers. Basically, it's kind of like a slots game, but a roguelite strategy game. You have certain abilities that you can start out with, or get between rounds with your earnings, and you activate them via slot machine to defeat your opponents.

Not sure entirely how it works for me. I've only done two runs so far, but what I can say from that is that there is already a neat variety in the powerups you can get, with differences between the different attacks, buffs, and so on, and I enjoy the timing based minigames that are used with some of the buffs and stronger attacks in order to determine how good the buff is or how hard you hit. However, the slot mechanic is a bit of a sticking point for me, as it really makes me feel at the whim of RNGesus, which is never a feeling I enjoy having with a game. Still, I'll give it a few more runs, see if it clicks with me as I get further stuff unlocked.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

How much you use omega move really depend on the weapon, for most of them I barely ever use them, the staff is about the only one that really benefit from them (and the staff is kinda poop anyway, except for the hidden I suppose), the knives you just use them for gap closing, the torch are used as part of the basic attack, you just have to use the special one like every 10 sec, its not worth using on most version of the axe and the cloak just suck all around but the charges extra suck for most versions.

But the story is very meh honestly, not sure what you mean by real ending but I just got the really last story sequence in the game and it finish on a revelation that just makes no sense.

I mean, I have no idea how you're playing, but if the Omega moves are not your main means of dealing damage, I cannot see how you are finishing your runs in a timely manner. Like 80% of all modifiers have to do more with your Omegas than the base moves. I have the complete opposite experience with the Coat and Axe (especially with the Axe lol).

Yup I have reached the REALIST ending as well. I got spoiled on it, but assumed it was a shit post. I guess not.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

This game has baaaaaaaaaaaallllls!!!!

If you're having fun, then you did nothing wrong. You're talking to someone who played 8 Call of Duty games during the middle of summer. I enjoyed almost all of them.

If I wasn't allergic to fps gameplay, I'm sure I'd enjoy the hell out of Call of Duty's single-player campaigns.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I'm at the "royal" part of Persona 5 Royal. Not really feeling it's worth it but so close to the end that I may as well see it through.

It made me think of all the DLC's / expansions / stuff-released-after-a-game-was-released that I've played and trying to remember which ones were really special. And as anyone that's put up with my posts for all this time and has a great memory might guess, all I came up are:
- The Bloodborne one I'm using for my avatar
- The Witcher 3's two paid story expansions

And even the Bloodborne one I think is as much a product of how that game came into my life. Bloodborne just totally rewired my brain and I was even doing chalice dungeons which is the kind of thing I wouldn't touch these days if you paid me.

 

[BrawlMan]

wasn't allergic to fps gameplay,

Are you referring to in general or just mediocre/bad FPS campaigns?

 

[Worgen]

I'm at the "royal" part of Persona 5 Royal. Not really feeling it's worth it but so close to the end that I may as well see it through.

It made me think of all the DLC's / expansions / stuff-released-after-a-game-was-released that I've played and trying to remember which ones were really special. And as anyone that's put up with my posts for all this time and has a great memory might guess, all I came up are:
- The Bloodborne one I'm using for my avatar
- The Witcher 3's two paid story expansions

And even the Bloodborne one I think is as much a product of how that game came into my life. Bloodborne just totally rewired my brain and I was even doing chalice dungeons which is the kind of thing I wouldn't touch these days if you paid me.

It is pretty cool, especially the new personas everyone can get.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I remember Extra Credits and/or Jim Sterling talking about that game and always intended to check it out but never did. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

I liked it fine. If I'd played it 12 years ago, before every indie game, especially horror ones, became about the creator's mental health and/or sense of guilt, I would've liked it more.

As a sort of 2D tribute to Silent Hill I thought it was neat and suitably eerie. As is, the story is so broadly presented and hazily defined and lacking in specificity that I kinda just gave up on it. Apparently there're 5 or 6 different endings but they're the bad kind that determine the nature of the story rather than its outcome. And I'm torn about how stubbornly cryptic the game is about feedback. I get that it doesn't want to ruin the atmosphere by explaining everything in terms of gameplay mechanics, and adding meters for sanity, hunger, stuff like that, but I kinda fumbled my way in the dark and never got a good sense of what the game wanted or disliked about how I was playing.

It's often on sale for like a dollar and a blind playthrough lasts 3-4 hours; if anybody has even a passing interest in survival horror I do recommend it.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I liked it fine. If I'd played it 12 years ago, before every indie game, especially horror ones, became about the creator's mental health and/or sense of guilt, I would've liked it more.

As a sort of 2D tribute to Silent Hill I thought it was neat and suitably eerie. As is, the story is so broadly presented and hazily defined and lacking in specificity that I kinda just gave up on it. Apparently there're 5 or 6 different endings but they're the bad kind that determine the nature of the story rather than its outcome. And I'm torn about how stubbornly cryptic the game is about feedback. I get that it doesn't want to ruin the atmosphere by explaining everything in terms of gameplay mechanics, and adding meters for sanity, hunger, stuff like that, but I kinda fumbled my way in the dark and never got a good sense of what the game wanted or disliked about how I was playing.

It's often on sale for like a dollar and a blind playthrough lasts 3-4 hours; if anybody has even a passing interest in survival horror I do recommend it.

Hmm, not really a glowing recommendation. As I'm generally not a fan of cryptic and vague stories, I'll probably give it a pass and forget about it.