What are you currently playing?

[Xprimentyl]

Exactly! And because there is zero form of rankings (please don't add it), there is no sense of "I have to climb the ladder", or "I'm gonna get demoted because of you". I think that also cut down the level of toxicity.

*sigh* Oddly, this makes me miss my Halo 2 days. IIRC, I managed to get as high as a 34, and competition was rough, but having held that 34 for a spell felt good. Getting paired up with mid-level 20s and hearing them gush over a +30 on their team was a real stroke to the ego.

Then I also recall a FFA match where the leader won with zero deaths, and before we all were dropped to the lobby, he came over the mic with a "good game," and he sounded like he couldn't have been older than 10. That was the point where I recognized that competitive multiplayer was NOT my bag. I played for fun afterwards, and tumbled back down into the high 20s (where I belonged,) but eventually lost most interest, and to this day, haven't played competitive MP in, I dunno, a decade? I bought Titanfall, paid full price, and literally played ONE match before deciding letting the skill of others dictate my enjoyment of my purchase was not going to work for me. The closest I've come is being invaded in Dark Souls, and even then, I usually just let the invader kill me so I could get back to the SP.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Approaching 30 hours of Tunic. It's the good stuff - I'm making my own maps and scrawling around all the stationary in the house like a madman. Looking for paper inside the big hardcover books around the house I found old maps I had made for the Final Fantasy I or II. Anyway, I like any game that makes me pull out a notepad. And I'm at the point where I might as well be scribbling nonsense - it's all patterns of lines and gibberish.

My only complaint is that I'm also at the point where it is no longer clear in what order am I supposed to deduce things and if one would lead to the next or it's all random. For example, I'm one collectible short, and two other collectibles of another kind short, and I don't know what set is supposed to help me deduce the location of the other, or if opening a particularly ominous door either requires one more collectible or will reward me with said collectible. All seem equally plausible.

I say complaint, but I haven't had a single gaming session yet where I don't make some kind of progress in any direction, so evidently there's more intuition to the design that meets the eye. And I refuse to look up anything for this game.

ACTUAL criticism - the boss fights suck, have little relation to the rest of the game and aren't very enjoyable at all.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Decided to take a break from HD2, and try out SW: Battlefront Classic Collection.

Folks, the online lobbies are broken af right now. First off the game launched with only 3 servers, and no one seems to be able to get in. You can launch your own LAN lobby or play singleplayer, but I feel thaat just takes away the half the fun.

Graphics are really disappointing, even with the "Upscaling"; I heard it looks worse than graphic overhaul mods, but I wouldn't know since I never tried that with my original game.

But the core gameplay that makes it fun is still there. I certainly would pick this over any BS from EA

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Black Ops 2:

Strike Force is the worst mechanic in any Call of Duty game. Worse than the exo-suits, worse than the space fighter plane, hell, it's worse than the Warzone missions in Modern Warfare 2023.

They throw you into this RTS game against all of the fucking enemies ever, the AI is completely fucking braindead and literally will not even follow basic movement commands half the time, let alone take initiative on defeating enemies themselves (they'll just stand there and let themselves be slaughtered), you only get one heavy weapon - which the enemies will instantly destroy, leaving you with nothing but slowly-respawning, instantly-dying infantry squads - and the game expects you to last for over ten minutes in these conditions, which the only way to do is to assume direct control of some guy and then not die against dozens of enemies from every direction at once, while also covering multiple defense points by just yourself - 'cause the AI sure isn't gonna do anything to help. Oh, and you only get a limited number of attempts; fail Strike Force missions too many times and the game just won't let you do them anymore, at least without starting the entire campaign over.

AND, if that wasn't enough, your ability (or, more likely, lack thereof) to successfully complete these missions?

Affects your ending. Negatively, if you fail, which you will, because the game doesn't give you what you need to succeed.

Fuck this shit. Fuck it with a rusty cactus. I'm just not gonna do any more Strike Force. Let the world burn, if that's what it demands of me to save it.

 

[Jarrito3002]

Yeah, this game is a love child of the Saturn and Dreamcast days. I like the game, but the boss fights are the weakest aspects unfortunately. Still a great platformer.

I liked the billards boss that was fun concept maybe should a made that theme like follow it up with a darts boss or ping pong boss would of been nice.

The mecha penguin boss can fuck off. All of the games short comings showed their ass in the boss fight. Like I was seething like how does your hitbox work and the answer was just "yes".

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Approaching 30 hours of Tunic. It's the good stuff - I'm making my own maps and scrawling around all the stationary in the house like a madman. Looking for paper inside the big hardcover books around the house I found old maps I had made for the Final Fantasy I or II. Anyway, I like any game that makes me pull out a notepad. And I'm at the point where I might as well be scribbling nonsense - it's all patterns of lines and gibberish.

My only complaint is that I'm also at the point where it is no longer clear in what order am I supposed to deduce things and if one would lead to the next or it's all random. For example, I'm one collectible short, and two other collectibles of another kind short, and I don't know what set is supposed to help me deduce the location of the other, or if opening a particularly ominous door either requires one more collectible or will reward me with said collectible. All seem equally plausible.

I say complaint, but I haven't had a single gaming session yet where I don't make some kind of progress in any direction, so evidently there's more intuition to the design that meets the eye. And I refuse to look up anything for this game.

ACTUAL criticism - the boss fights suck, have little relation to the rest of the game and aren't very enjoyable at all.

Glad you're enjoying Tunic, it's one of those critical darlings I actually agree with all the praise. I didn't have the patience to deduce everything I admit I used internet help toward the end but still had fun.

And yeah the bosses suck, I dunno where is this rule that all games need boss fights.

 

[BrawlMan]

I liked the billards boss that was fun concept maybe should a made that theme like follow it up with a darts boss or ping pong boss would of been nice.

The mecha penguin boss can fuck off. All of the games short comings showed their ass in the boss fight. Like I was seething like how does your hitbox work and the answer was just "yes".

The billiards boss is okay but drags on and can be finicky with pinpointing the pool balls directions. The problem with many of these bosses that they require the the use of the yo-yo in some fashion. The only boss I like is the boss at the end of the first world, and the judge boss fight. The race against the puppet version of you is also pretty good too. The neck boss especially though I hate the most and it took me about six restarts to get it down. There are definitely hit box issues. Whenever a sequel does happen, I really hope they either improve on the boss fights by not making it so yo-yo focused or needed, or just ditch them entirely. I actually prefer the second option, if they can't think of anything else.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Tunic is something special, makes an indulgent pairing with Cocoon too if must say meself. Though tbh did have to use the internet at one point cause took a long break from it and forgot a whole lotta everything upon return, specifically the 'hold x while standing still, not when moving' action required for all progress lol. 🫣

Outlast Trials
started finally making progress at last (outlast!) after many level or game quits on first level due to it taking soooooo looooong to make progress when playing alone: not from frustration mind you, just time IRL kept running out and there's no pause or checkpoint save cos live-service controls timeblocks now. had to surrender to working with other strangers, partly encouraged by hearing Steph Sterling mention they enjoyed it but only once other ppl helped out. and yeah it has made a hell of a difference, even once managed to hide in a cupboard while everyone else did all the objectives for me, like the weasely self-serving coward I am! (did think there was a monster nearby refusing to leave me alone though, so kept darting back to same safe space every time a growl was heard, lol).

Still looks and feels great, the narrative and physical setup of the shared area being like a high-surveillance mental facility where you all have your own rooms you can customise, visit upgrade stations, visit other ppls rooms (no funny business though!), play chess or armwrestle with others, may perhaps appeal more with own memories of time spent in much less sinister versions a few years back. There's a weird comfort to it all, despite the limbs n blood n grinders n provocative environment design. No matter how bad it goes, you still wake up in your bed ready to wander the facility for snacks as the sciencey ppl behind the misty windows adjust their equipment, taking further notes on your poor diet discipline.

Would be appreciated to have a "peer lower" button to complete the "peer in directions" set however, especially when hiding in the toilets with them toilet doors.

 

[meiam]

Anybody tried outcast new beginning? Some of the footage makes it look pretty cool, but description make it sound like the most generic thing to ever generic.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Okay, BF Classic Collection servers seem to be more stable now; Still doesn't excusethe fact that

• Matches last no more than 10 min due to respawn tickets being limited
• It takes 62.87 GB of space, and not counting space for mods
• Crappy performance
• No modern controoler support

And so many other problems that players have pointed out. I actually can't believe this is from Aspyr, whom I always thought were one of the better studios w/ standards. It's one of those cases where a delay would've done favor. I am very disappointed in them.

The only silver lining is they are asking for $35, which is very fair price compared to other classic collections that were overpriced. Still feel like it could've been cheaper.

 

[Worgen]

Grabbed a few games from the Steam spring sale. Currently playing Robocop: Rogue City and Eschatos.

Robocop is pretty cool, it really mimics the style of old movies well, Detroit looks like its right out of Reagan's America. The shooting feels good and you feel like you are a walking tank, albeit one that needs to watch out for grenades and machine guns. I wasn't expecting there to be more then shooting though, like you will have to solve cases and interact with the public and wander around finding law breakers and deciding if they deserve a warning or ticket. Pretty cool, you can feel that its a B tier game, it looks good, but there are things that are off, animation can have small bugs and the dialog can be clunky. Probably the worst aspect of the game is the sound mixing, the sounds are fine, but the volume is all over the place. Even in a 1 on 1 conversation one person can be quiet (usually robocop) and the other person can be loud, same with the guns, especially Robocop's personal service weapon, that thing is really loud.

Eschatos is a shootemup, its got a great sense of speed, feels like manageable difficulty and a good sound track. You only have 2 weapons, one is a forward shot and one is a spread shot, but you also have a shield you can put up whenever you want, it does have an energy bar that drains and you can't shoot during it, but it feels like it makes the difficulty nicely balanced, even though the game is rather hard so far, but I'll get better.

 

[Dalisclock]

Made some more progress in Live a Live:

-Prehistory chapter is interesting but basically lives and dies on a crafting system(that is nowhere else in the game) and pantomime communication. Essentially being everyone is a caveman, apparently language hasn't been invented yet(but they have flintstones cars because reasons) so everything is done through exaggerated motions and iconographic bubbles to represent concepts(Anger, Love, food, etc). Which is fine I guess, but it feels like it gets old after a bit. OTOH it's a shorter chapter.

The other thing this chapter has going for it is that being a Caveman, the main character Pogo has better smell then modern humans, so you can sniff the air to locate animals and occasionally hidden items, so you can kill animals to level up and make better weapons to kill animals better.

-Shinobi Chapter. Basically you have been tasked to infiltrate a castle in Edo Japan(in the 1860's apparently) to rescue a prisoner. How you do it is up to you as long as the job gets done and it has to be done tonight(so they send a rookie like you being berift of other options). The big deal here is you can hide in plane sight by holding down a button but you can't move while hiding. It feels like a Metal Gear Ninja game basically. The Shinobi keeps track of how many people you kill during the operation but it only matters for two reasons: You get a special item at the end if you kill either nobody(some enemies don't count towards this) or kill literally everyone. Both are incredibly difficult since you can accidently lock yourself out of both runs. But generally pretty fun since you can generally play this as you like and there are numerous routes through the castle. Be prepared to use a walkthrough if you do the pacifist or genocide run though.

-Present day chapter is basically a street fighter/fighting game type mini-game. You do a series of one on one bouts to win. The big trick behind this is that each enemy you fight has special moves you can learn but that have to use it on you for you to learn it, so if you beat them too quickly you might not learn the special moves to carry over to the next fight. In a way this is also like Mega Man because some fights are arguably easier if you have certain special moves. Arguably the shortest chapter by far though replaying a fight(save between them) is probably a good idea if you don't get the special moves.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Total Warhammer 3. Got it on steam sale. Playing through the tutorial mission. I don't want to, it's a tutorial, but apparently there's a Kislev legendary lord locked behind tutorial completion. Fucking irritating.

I suppose once I finish the tutorial I'll give the Chaos Warriors a go on Immortal Empires, they apparently had a bit of a rework from TW2.

 

[meiam]

Total Warhammer 3. Got it on steam sale. Playing through the tutorial mission. I don't want to, it's a tutorial, but apparently there's a Kislev legendary lord locked behind tutorial completion. Fucking irritating.

I suppose once I finish the tutorial I'll give the Chaos Warriors a go on Immortal Empires, they apparently had a bit of a rework from TW2.

Its not the tutorial, its the main campaign as kislev. iirc there's a mod that just unlock him.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Its not the tutorial, its the main campaign as kislev. iirc there's a mod that just unlock him.

Ah, i think I might go and download that then.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Playing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I won't bore you with the usual so here's my girlfriend's glowing review of it:

"Sargon is clearly the bottom because he's smaller than the others but also super buff which every bottom should be and he got a snatched waist so he's an easy fuck"

"Big dude and bow dude are a couple but they also take turns fucking Sargon so there's like a love triangle there also the leader is basically daddy Miguel O'Hara so he's in on it too and tops him regularly whenever there's dissent"

"Sargon also bottoms for the Prince of Persia [checks fanart] a bottom should never be taller than a top"

 

[Alienware]

I am playing lots of Hell Divers 2 on PS5 and some Diablo 2 r on PC

So if anyone plays these games, hit me up!

 

[BrawlMan]

I tried a few games on my brother's Myoo Mini Plus. I'm gonna have to grab one of these later! One of the game's I played was Rollergames (NES). A fun platformer brawler from Konami.

​

 

[BrawlMan]

I decided to pop in Resident Evil 5 (PS4) and give that a go.

 

[meiam]

I tried a few games on my brother's Myoo Mini Plus. I'm gonna have to grab one of these later! One of the game's I played was Rollergames (NES). A fun platformer brawler from Konami.

​

In the same style (but a bit more expensive), I have a retroid 3+ which can play all the way up to some PS2/GC (maybe 2/3 of the games).