What are you currently playing?

[Zykon TheLich]

Well, I've been signed off work till the end of January as my balls continue to bleed internally and fill up with blood. Woohoo!

So I'm still playing Pathfinder Kingmaker to avoid going insane. I'm currently level 9. Played a fair bit and have been familiar with DnD rules since the early 90s...

I had been thinking, clerics don't get many spells in Pathfinder. They just get this big aoe heal with increased number of uses as they level up and a couple of virtually useless low level spells. I'm having to use the bard for most healing...

Then now, at level fucking 9, about 90 hours in according to steam, I realise that there's a spell book that you have to manually assign the spells with. It's not like I didn't know about memorising spells, I had just assumed that it would assign new spells automatically as you levelled up and you could change them to what you wanted. Because it didn't assign any I assumed for some reason that clerics didn't get any higher level spells in Pathfinder.

Fucking idiot.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Played a bit of Ruiner, and it's in the unfortunate position of not being quite there. Maybe it's its nature as a twinstick shooter, but something about it doesn't move the way I want it to. When I kill enemies it feels less me honing my skills and more me flailing around till either they or me die.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm not gonna get turned into a squid after 500 hours of trying save the bloody world - I want mine, goddammit!

*cries in Bloodborne*

 

[Casual Shinji]

*cries in Bloodborne*

I mean, you kinda already know you're not saving that world. Fans would fucking revolt if you actually got a happy ending and saved the world in a Fromsoft game. Maybe even more so than if they added an easy mode.

 

[Ezekiel]

Happy about all the important games I beat last year, I decided to continue Bully. Got the game in December 2017 and left it at chapter 4 in December 2018. Don't remember anything and am not gonna restart, because I don't care about the story and just wanna be able to say I played through it. It always bothered me that I left it there. Mediocre. Thoroughly.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Happy about all the important games I beat last year, I decided to continue Bully. Got the game in December 2017 and left it at chapter 4 in December 2018. Don't remember anything and am not gonna restart, because I don't care about the story and just wanna be able to say I played through it. It always bothered me that I left it there. Mediocre. Thoroughly.

I’ve yet to play anything this year. Needless to say I no longer have the time or patience for mediocre games.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Wanted to play more of Silent Hill 2 Remake (see the thread for my sporadic thoughts on the game), but last couple days I haven't been able to make progress because of a nasty cold that's been sapping my energy. Hoping to kick it soon so that I can focus on a game again.

 

[BrawlMan]

Wanted to play more of Silent Hill 2 Remake (see the thread for my sporadic thoughts on the game), but last couple days I haven't been able to make progress because of a nasty cold that's been sapping my energy. Hoping to kick it soon so that I can focus on a game again.

Take your time, and I hope you feel better. This is cold/flu season unfortunately. Nothing has happened to me, but allergies kick up during this part of the winter season.

I've been playing more Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold. I also have been playing Marvel Super Heroes EX vs. Street Fighter (PS1) for shits and giggles. Still a decent port and reformulated game though.

Victory Heat Rally is a banging arcade racing game, and is easily in my top 10 of racing games now. I've gotten far, and the courses are starting to get really tough now.

 

[Ezekiel]

I wonder if I would have seen this keyhole in the first level of Tomb Raider III earlier with a better monitor. Kept passing it over and over and over, wondering where I was supposed to go.

This switch too. Walked by it again and again, wasting so much time. Not the types of things I wanna use flares for.

 

[Ezekiel]

This darkness is irritating. I've been in that big room with the six-armed walking statue for a long while. Found one of the keys for the door, can't find the other. Destroyed the statue. So I wandered around, went back a little ways, toggled the new graphics and saw a shotgun hidden away by the dark old graphics. Could have easily missed it. I mean, I did miss it and only went back because I was stuck. Is the old lighting correct? Was it this dark on PlayStation?

Enjoying the game, even though progression has been super slow. Thoughtful design and so much atmosphere.

 

[Ezekiel]

Finally found the switch to the door on the right by dropping into the hole before it with a flare. Must have walked by the switch at least six times, thinking there might be something else in the chamber beyond the switch

Spoiler

Anyone who uses flares all the time in case will run out. They burn out in no time.

Still would rather not play with the brighter new graphics because I want to know the original, not someone's interpretation, and the old textures and simple geometry mesh better.

 

[Worgen]

Been playing Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. Its really good. I finished it with Gunvolt, but you have 2 characters you play, Gunvolt who mainly plays like he does in the first game and this second guy who plays like a cross between Megaman, Sonic and a jetpack. So far he feels easier to play, not that Gunvolt 2 is exactly hard, they added a mechanic where you automatically dodge attacks unless you are out of juice or attacking at the time. But hes really fun to play, more so then Gunvolt since hes really mobile. Unfortunately hes also a massive ass.

Also grabbed Artisan TD since it was on sale and looked like the kinda tower defense game I like. I like it, you can make the maze you want, enemies are satisfying to beat and it keeps introducing new things that keep me on my toes. I do have a feeling it will get to that certain difficulty that a lot of tower defence games do where it stops being fun and becomes frustrating, but so far we are not there.

Also also, Ripout kinda just gets more and more entertaining. From a really rough and hard start (once I got an armor upgrade things got much more manageable, but till then I struggled to even beat a stage) its really come into its prime. More enemy variety, interesting stage graphics, good mission rewards and I'm only on the level 2 missions, there are 5 levels of missions. I hope they can keep that up.

 

[Ezekiel]

I hoped to beat Tomb Raider III without looking at a guide. (Looked up one thing in Tomb Raider. Can't remember how many in Tomb Raider II, because that was seven and half years ago.) But the ATV was really annoying me. Pressed every button and still couldn't dismount. Assumed she can't. Tried a jump twenty times. Tried again to dismount. Looked at a video, saw the player dismount. Found a Steam post saying End key + Left/Right key. End key meaning Circle/B. Page 5 of the PlayStation manual says Dismount is simply Circle!

https://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Sony_Playstation/Manual/formated/Tomb_Raider_III-_Adventures_of_Lara_Croft_-_1998_-_Eidos_Interactive.pdf

 

[BrawlMan]

Seriously, @Worgen, you gotta get on Victory Heat Rally when you get the chance. I finished Alpha Cup, and EX Cup. All there is left is the Z Cup. The soundtrack is like a crazy cross between Jet Set Radio, Sonic Rush, and Sonic Mania. VHR feels like a lost SEGA racing game. There's a great variety of tracks and challenge courses to play. This hands down one of the best arcade racers ever made! It's going in my list!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Beat Flynn: Son of Crimson. Maybe it's confirmation bias but it's kinda impossible not to see how the game transformed over time into a significantly more basic, streamlined version of what was originally envisioned.

It's a Boy And His Dog plot and the tutorial level has you escorting your pet Arcanine while clearing the road ahead, opening gates, etc. Never again moving forward. The dog sits out most of the game until you gain the ability to summon him at specific statues for I want to say 3 or 4 levels, and only to ride it over chasms and thorned ground. Dog's basically highly selective footwear. The puzzle/escort angle never comes back.

The abilities you gain also don't feel like much. You gain the ability to glide for exactly a single level. Next you learn to jump off walls, which is only useful on levels moving forward. You get three different magic spells which don't mean much beyond shooting this kind of enemy with this kind of magic.

I enjoyed the game but nothing about it really stood out.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Finally managed to start playing games again, so after flipping a few coins I got back on Silent Hill 2(024). I had to use a guide for several steps in Blue Creek Apartments because I'm blind sometimes and I was missing breakable walls, as well as the fact that the moth puzzle was counting the total number of shapes, not how many of each moth there is. Got spoiled on the fight at the end of that section, I think because I was reading the other thread too much (nobody's fault but mine), and that kinda took some of the edge out of it, but there were some great moments in that section, like the environment suddenly changing behind James's back, or that scene with Angela.

Basically, I don't have a lot to say about it that hasn't already been said. Might save further thoughts for after I've played a lot more of it, or finished it.

 

[Worgen]

Seriously, @Worgen, you gotta get on Victory Heat Rally when you get the chance. I finished Alpha Cup, and EX Cup. All there is left is the Z Cup. The soundtrack is like a crazy cross between Jet Set Radio, Sonic Rush, and Sonic Mania. VHR feels like a lost SEGA racing game. There's a great variety of tracks and challenge courses to play. This hands down one of the best arcade racers ever made! It's going in my list!

Wish I had remembered that instead of some of the dlc for turtles. Survival mode isn't really doing it for me.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Started It Takes Two with my girlfriend.

Refreshingly it's not one of those relationship killer co-op games, for a change, in the vein of Overcooked or Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. You're given different sets of complementary tools/weapons, meaning the game automatically assigns you your job, and there's a measure of coordination involved (like a player will be going through a 2D platforming gauntlet while the other player manipulates the environment around them), but since there're checkpoints everywhere and you can die endlessly at no cost you're never stuck anywhere for too long. I also like that Atreus and Mimir aren't around to spoil the fun of figuring out what you're supposed to do, even if it never takes that long to figure it out. It's fun and casual and brimming with ideas. I wonder what the hell is Josef Fares willing to veto.

Verdict: Psychonauts if it was co-op and the writing was lame.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

I will be honest, I'd recommend the classic complete saga instead. Because Skywalker Saga is all smoke and mirrors.

Granted it does a lot of things better; Gorgeous graphics, exploration of multiple open-worlds (not too big) per episode, and the camera no longer being on overheard and opts for 3rd person, space combat now being more open and no longer a rail shooter, and melee attacks now having combos, and a lot of things that makes LSW:TSS a good game. Also the new character models look awesome, as they now have more detailed clothing, hairstyles, and faces. The tongue-in-scheek humors are still here and fucking funny, and there are tons of easter eggs and references.

However, once I put down a few hours in, I came to realize there are so many things wrong with the game. Granted it does add a lot of activities and things to unlock, but they are repetitive and toned down in terms of challenge. For each episode, it's about 80% open world/ free roam with about 20% of it being the levels. The open world designs are actually interesting, because it's the classic free play now with more open space. There are certain collectibles that can only be accessed by certain class, and they are incredibly simple. Kyber bricks remind me of korok seeds in BOTW/TOTK, but here at least they serve a purpose.

The platforming challenges really disappoints me. It actually punishes/fails you for trying too hard. Instead, you have to follow a generic and specific path that they have laid out for you.

There are indeed lots of playable characters to unlock, but because they are categorized into specific classes if you played one of them, you played all of them. For example, you unlock Ben Kenobi. You enjoy his saber combos and using force to move stuff; congratulations, you just experience all characters who are jedi, and by extension siths. Only very few of them have unique abilities, which makes it really unrewarding to try and unlock any of them.

The combat is fun.... at first. But then you realize it's really repetitive. There are options to just run past them since all characters can now sprint, but what's the fun in that?? And as I've said each level takes about 20% of the gameplay, and with sprint abilities you can simply run past all enemies and end each mission in breakneck speed.

Also, no custom character creation. Red flag x10.

...However, I would have to say it's still better than Jedi Survivor, or Outcast Outlaws

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I played The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe because it's free this month on PS+.

I liked it enough, it's one of the rare games to make me laugh out loud. The narrator is up there with the Bastion dude and the Thomas Was Alone dude, in terms of carrying. That's a Gen Z thing, right? Carrying, serving? This zaddy carries. This babygirl serves. No cap.