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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Freedom Planet 2. I loves it, its go so much care and attention put into everything. The writing can still be cheesy but it is noticeably better then it was in the first game, same with the voice acting. So far I've only played Carol, but I'm really looking forward to playing the other 3 once I beat it since it really feels like there are some stages that each character plays and some that only one will play, so I'm really curious what everyone else was up too while I was doing the last few stages.

Also started messing around in Warthunder again since they had a prettier explosions patch come out, the explosions certainly are prettier. Right now I'm having fun, despite the shitness of the American tanks at my tier. But boats are more fun.
 
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NerfedFalcon

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Freedom Planet 2. I loves it, its go so much care and attention put into everything. The writing can still be cheesy but it is noticeably better then it was in the first game, same with the voice acting. So far I've only played Carol, but I'm really looking forward to playing the other 3 once I beat it since it really feels like there are some stages that each character plays and some that only one will play, so I'm really curious what everyone else was up too while I was doing the last few stages.
I noticed that Freedom Planet 2 came out, but I wasn't sure about picking it up since while I played the first one, I never got around to actually finishing it. Maybe I'll go for it once I've gotten more out of Radiant Silvergun.

Speaking of, I made it through Stage 3 for the first time, using all of my continues and lives, and then immediately died at the first boss of Stage 2, which I picked over 4. Definitely need to practice 3-D a lot more to learn to deal with that spinning laser attack once you start being pushed out of the bottom by the camera.
 

Bartholen

At age 6 I was born without a face
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I've been playing Elden Ring again after the initial burnout of the first playthrough subsided. I've still ended up playing a dual wield build, but with dex and claws instead of strength and greatswords this time. I've found the Quickstep to make the combat a fair bit more dynamic, because the claws are so short-ranged and the bosses jerk and move around a ton, so you need a good gap closer. It also makes some enemies a lot more manageable, like dogs. I'm determined to solo all the bosses this time, since I summoned pretty much constantly on the first playthrough. Elemer of the Briar was the first boss in a long time to give me proper trouble, if for no other reason than the arena giving you essentially no safe place to run to.

In one respect the game's still a bit irritating, and that's its stinginess with upgrade materials. You find a crapton of weapons, but only enough Smithing Stones to reliably upgrade maybe 1 or 2. If you want to switch to a new main weapon but have already spent the highest Stones on your previous one, you either have to go hunt for more materials or play with an underpowered weapon compared to your previous one. It feels at odds with itself, on one hand encouraging trying out new weapons, but on the other going "you better be careful where you put those Smithing Stones".

I've also noticed this game having basically the same problem as Dark Souls 3 when it comes to armor: there's basically zero incentive to wear anything but the heaviest armor you can other than aesthetics. Since stamina and equip load are once again tied to the same stat, there's almost no reason to consider equip load at all.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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I've been playing Elden Ring again after the initial burnout of the first playthrough subsided. I've still ended up playing a dual wield build, but with dex and claws instead of strength and greatswords this time. I've found the Quickstep to make the combat a fair bit more dynamic, because the claws are so short-ranged and the bosses jerk and move around a ton, so you need a good gap closer. It also makes some enemies a lot more manageable, like dogs. I'm determined to solo all the bosses this time, since I summoned pretty much constantly on the first playthrough. Elemer of the Briar was the first boss in a long time to give me proper trouble, if for no other reason than the arena giving you essentially no safe place to run to.

In one respect the game's still a bit irritating, and that's its stinginess with upgrade materials. You find a crapton of weapons, but only enough Smithing Stones to reliably upgrade maybe 1 or 2. If you want to switch to a new main weapon but have already spent the highest Stones on your previous one, you either have to go hunt for more materials or play with an underpowered weapon compared to your previous one. It feels at odds with itself, on one hand encouraging trying out new weapons, but on the other going "you better be careful where you put those Smithing Stones".

I've also noticed this game having basically the same problem as Dark Souls 3 when it comes to armor: there's basically zero incentive to wear anything but the heaviest armor you can other than aesthetics. Since stamina and equip load are once again tied to the same stat, there's almost no reason to consider equip load at all.
Gotta find those bell bearings, which will allow you to upgrade weapons and other things like spirit ashes up to a level under max. Then there are enough ancient smithing stones to find per NG to level 13 standard and 8 somber weapons for that last bump. They cost quite a few runes to buy of course, but with the Palace Road grace site farming spot and a good AoE weapon skill/spell it can be done in a matter of minutes.

For armor, yeah it’s not as useful as older games for actual protection, but I do find a significant benefit to poise with the medium/heavy stuff. Also it pays to look at the descriptions, as many of the pieces offer passive buffs to different stats.

Something else I never knew about until after I finished the game, there is a checkmark and favorites section in the map for sites of grace -
 
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Hawki

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hanselthecaretaker

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You know, coupled with the rumoured red-coloured Sonic in the game, I'm starting to get Dragon Ball vibes.

I mean, more than usual. 0_0
Did they also mention the ability to turn into Super Sonic being locked behind a paywall? Because that wouldn’t surprise me.
 
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Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
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Whatever, just wash your hands.
I noticed that Freedom Planet 2 came out, but I wasn't sure about picking it up since while I played the first one, I never got around to actually finishing it. Maybe I'll go for it once I've gotten more out of Radiant Silvergun.
I would highly recommend it, but if you weren't really into the first one, I'm not sure that the new stuff in 2 would make you like it more. But, I don't think you need to have played the first one to enjoy the second, it helps with the characters and they do reference things from the first game, but nothing that would make something inaccessible. Or at least it seems like that to me.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Metal Hellsinger

I tried it out on XBox via Gamepass. I don't even feel qualified to judge it fairly because:
1) I love me some heavy metal
2) I can't play fps games

So me playing this game is a constant mental back and forth of "heck yeah1" and "damn damn what is killing me"

It's ostensibly a short game with like 6 levels or so. Each level you from room to room and kill waves of enemies and the last room is a boss. I made it to the second boss and it's just a variation of the first boss.
You know the gimmick, you get better damage when you shoot ON the beat, and you also get better music when you hit on the beat more. When you reach the most multiplier the vocals kick in and if you are any kind of fan of metal you actually know these singers. I was pleasantly surprised to see the singers of Dark Tranquility and Arch Enemy appear in those two levels.

Level 2 introduced a an enemy that flies around really fast and shoots poison things I can't avoid so... *sigh* I'm really bad at these games.

You get to resurrect a couple of times when you die but if you don't beat the final boss of a level with the resurrects you gotta start over. That means that I will likely try it once or twice more before giving up- yes it's too hard for me even on the easiest setting. I started on default the dropped it down and the big difference I see is it takes less bullets to kill things.

Visually it is like doom because, you know, "hell," so red and black and fire, which is fine, just kind of gives me a headache after a while.

I definitely recommend checking this out if you like shooters or metal music and then seeing if all the elements click for you.
 

Bartholen

At age 6 I was born without a face
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Gotta find those bell bearings, which will allow you to upgrade weapons and other things like spirit ashes up to a level under max. Then there are enough ancient smithing stones to find per NG to level 13 standard and 8 somber weapons for that last bump. They cost quite a few runes to buy of course, but with the Palace Road grace site farming spot and a good AoE weapon skill/spell it can be done in a matter of minutes.

For armor, yeah it’s not as useful as older games for actual protection, but I do find a significant benefit to poise with the medium/heavy stuff. Also it pays to look at the descriptions, as many of the pieces offer passive buffs to different stats.

Something else I never knew about until after I finished the game, there is a checkmark and favorites section in the map for sites of grace -
Of course I fucking know about the bell bearings, you think I played the game for 100 hours and didn't know that? What I'm referring to is that up to the Mountaintops of the Giants the highest level smithing stones the bell bearings will get you is 4, and a +12 weapon is simply underpowered for that section of the game, and exploration simply doesn't provide enough higher level stones to reliably get weapons to the desired level.
 

Chupathingy

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Finished playing The Darkness II.

First of all, the gameplay and combat are an improvement over the first. It runs better, combat feels more smooth, the Darkness powers are more fun, less janky, and feel nerfed while still being useful. This game also continued the trend of having fun collectibles which I appreciate. However, I wasn't a huge fan of the art style change. It's more distinct, and is obviously meant to represent the comic books, but it doesn't create the same grimy atmosphere the original did, coupled with the less memorable soundtrack and larger focus on combat sections, the game's overall atmosphere feels dull when compared to the first game.

Story wise I liked the game enough as a continuation of the first, but as previously mentioned it never quite achieves the same somberness of the first. The biggest problem is the huge cliffhanger the game ends with, and considering this game is 10 years old I don't think we're ever getting a sequel.
 
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BrawlMan

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You know, coupled with the rumoured red-coloured Sonic in the game, I'm starting to get Dragon Ball vibes.

I mean, more than usual. 0_0
I hope this is just a mistranslation issue, because that sounds pretty vague. I'm not in the mood for some dumb grindy, leveling up, or you have to be in a certain condition to fight damaged sponge bosses.

Did they also mention the ability to turn into Super Sonic being locked behind a paywall? Because that wouldn’t surprise me.
Is this true, or a rumor? If they are actually doing that, then they can kiss my money goodbye. They technically already did this with Sonic Forces, but it was free dlc.
 
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Drathnoxis

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Finished Saints Row 2 at 93% completion. Did all the minigames and races, but didn't bother with chopshops or hitman missions or all the collectibles because those just seemed like busywork. The game is fun but kind of easy like I said before. Once you get unlimited smg ammo, combat holds no challenge and waves of enemies will instantly melt before your spray of bullets. Also you have regenerating health and can hold 4 food items that can restore 70% of your health instantly, so surviving is usually not a problem. I did have to look up how to actually eat the food, because the game never actually mentioned what buttons to press as far as I was aware. Money is also worthless. After about 2 hours of play I had more money than I could ever use. You can buy shops (which I did whenever I saw the sign, but didn't go out of my way for) which has the reward of paying out more money. You could buy cars for exorbitant prices... which you can just steal for free. You can buy clothing items and guns and ammo, none of which are very expensive. I ended up with over a million dollars and had nothing to spend it on. I could have bought the rest of the shops and all the clothes in the game, but I doubt that would have cost more than 200k. Weirdly the game is constantly reminding you to go back to your house to collect your money, as if it actually matters at all.

The minigames are mostly kind of awful, and needed a bit more thought into how to make them fun. The Septic Avenger missions that everybody likes to talk about is trivial because you can stop the truck for as long as you want and your truck is indestructible. This means that you just stop the truck in front of every building and fire at a single spot until the health bar runs down. A better implementation would probably have been a coverage based score rather than a health bar and remove the ability to stop the truck. Heli-Assault is terrible and frustrating, and both instances of it are the exact same thing. Your lackeys are constantly whining at you the second an enemy appears and they also like to drive under underpasses where you cannot cover them. Also you need to take out enemy choppers the second they appear or else they might blow you up in a single hit with their missiles. Which sucks. Every minigame where the AI is driving is frustrating, because they drive slowly and kind of badly. The only minigame that I considered actually fun the entire time was Insurance Fraud, where you hurl yourself in front of speeding vehicles to launch yourself into the air and chain collisions for extra points. The only problem with that game is that there is no arcade mode. I want to be able to see how high of a score I can get before the time runs out, but the last level of the mission ends as soon as you reach $500,000 and there is no option to continue. Oh sure, they make 10 different bonus modes for the demolition derby that I will never want to play, but not a single bonus mode for the only fun game. The races are kind of frustrating because the minimap won't tell you whether you've gotten gold on a race or not. I don't know why because the other minigames turn grey once complete, but the races make you guess. In the end I had to spend like an hour taking a cab around to every race to pick up the last 4 or 5 that I hadn't done yet.

The game is kind of buggy, I had about 6 or 7 hard crashes that required me to restart my 360. The aforementioned cab is this games version of fast travel. If you think to phone the number written on a cab, one will spawn and you can get in and then select a location on the map to instantly travel to... most of the time. Sometimes the cab will spawn and instantly pull a U-turn and start driving away from you. You can't call another until the first one despawns so I would frequently end up sprinting for minutes trying to catch up to it or even steal another vehicle just so I could catch my cab. Ridiculous! Why can't it just go to the fast travel screen immediately after I call the cab? A couple times I took a cab and immediately died upon arrival. One time the cab arrived underwater in the sewer.

The story is light and fun and really captures the joy of being a nearly invincible mass murdering psychopath. There isn't any very memorable characters or moments, but that doesn't matter because it's all about how much chaos you can cause in this world. Overall the game is fun, but could have used a bit more polish.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Of course I fucking know about the bell bearings, you think I played the game for 100 hours and didn't know that? What I'm referring to is that up to the Mountaintops of the Giants the highest level smithing stones the bell bearings will get you is 4, and a +12 weapon is simply underpowered for that section of the game, and exploration simply doesn't provide enough higher level stones to reliably get weapons to the desired level.
Upgrading weapons has always been an issue is these games, in terms of taking most the game to level even one (although Sekiro escapes this by literally focusing on just one main weapon anyways). Still though, with ER there are more ways to compensate for weapons levels now via weapon ashes, spirits, ease of changing affinities, etc.

Having said that, they should’ve made this stuff available earlier and cost less, or at least give the option to experiment more easily. Gating or pacing this aspect for the sake of game balance is made irrelevant anyways since there’s always a way(s) to become overpowered early.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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I hope this is just a I missed translation issue, because that sounds pretty vague. I'm not in the mood for some dumb grindy, leveling up, or you have to be in a certain condition to fight damaged sponge bosses.


Is this true, or a rumor? If they are actually doing that, then they can kiss my money goodbye. They technically already did this with Sonic Forces, but it was free dlc.
Just speculating based on current trends. Hopefully not the case.
 
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Drathnoxis

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Ring of Pain. Think I'm pretty well done with the game. I've beaten both endings on the first 2 difficulty settings, but the last one is kind of a wall. I've made it to the end 3 times starting with the tiara that freezes enemies on hit as long as you have fewer than 4 items but since you can't freeze bosses you need a very specific set of items. Pretty much you need one item that does splash damage and another that prevents ranged attacks to do the dark ending, and probably splash damage and the ability to pass blockers on light, since I died last time getting stuck beside one. A backpack would also do wonders for the build as long as you can get it while you still have a chance to get more items. Apart from a cheesy build like that I haven't had much luck, and otherwise the enemies are just too tough if you don't get good items pretty much right away. I feel like eventually I would get the build I need for the freeze run, but it's a really slow way of playing and not altogether that likely to succeed.

Maybe I'll try that other game that Worgen mentioned.

Edit: nevermind. As per usual after saying I'm done with a game, I went back and beat it anyway. Now I've completed the game on hard doing the dark ending. Basically it just came down to restarting until I got good enough items near the start and things snowballed. Also the glowstone helped a lot since it has a good chance of upgrading the rarity of an item when you re-roll. I think I'm happy now, I don't really feel the need to keep playing anymore. RNG of Pain is more like it (I wish I could say I came up with that joke.)
 
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XsjadoBlaydette

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Temtem. Is like Pokémon but...

Hmm.

But...

Wait, but...

...

Ok it's just Pokémon.

Without the baggage?

Except! Ahah! it's an mmo? And runs at 60fps? And isn't restricted to Nintendo platforms?

But yeah is just Pokémon.

And that's all I wanted really.

Well, ok I didn't want the one Pokémon in my squad who, after evolving, decided it's much cooler to intentionally lose half their health everytime I start a match with full health. like wtf dude, you were my favourite cutest Zappo beetle and you do this to me now?? In my greatest time of need??? ...Bah! Back into the pack with you!
 

Drathnoxis

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Played about 20 minutes of Across the Obelisk and I'm so bored. The presentation is really bland. Your band of random heroes are in constant conflict with small groups of enemies and you select cards to shake your weapons at each other as gentle music plays. You have 4 heroes who each have their own deck, and each card has several status ailments that it inflicts. And then you can upgrade, craft, divine(?), and buy cards in towns. And after every battle you need to pick a new card for every hero. It's a lot of information right off the bat, but it didn't really matter much because I won the 3 combats I was in easily by playing my entire hand. Then I looked across the map at the 20 or so little icons between me and the flashing boss(?) icon, and I just couldn't summon the strength to go on.

I'm sorry, maybe it's petty, but I think any developer that would choose to use this as a combat theme is seriously lacking in judgement.

 

NerfedFalcon

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By the definition of reaching the credits, I've beaten Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and holy crap, what is it with the endings of Kirby games and being absolutely incredible? Every single one I can think of, even Dream Land by the standards of the platform and the time, just blows me away. And the whole game's really great; it's got some inconvenient parts to it, but they don't really do anything to detract from the rest. It looks great, it plays great, the story and the setting are brilliant, and it doesn't even have the usual Kirby issue of being short, since it took me quite a few days of play time to get here, and it'll likely take quite a few more to finish getting 100%. A hard recommendation from me, for all of you guys who have a Switch and haven't gotten to it yet.
 
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Dreiko

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Started Hades and having a blast. I had been hearing good things about it and it lives up to expectations. I haven't played an old school isometric action game like that in a long while but it brings back memories of all sorts of classic games but also has a ton of depth too. I also like their take on greek myths. It's creative without completely abandoning the classic feeling for an altogether new interpretation.


In my first session I managed to reach up to the third level, and I am getting a feel for how you wanna stack your buffs based on the type of weapon you have and so on, but the RNG in the buffs you get on each run is actually really good at keeping things from getting too repetitive. Also I like how there's a whole lot of voice lines for the same events instead of repeating the same line over and over, that sort of attention to detail is awesome.


Also that medusa head maid is oddly cute lol.