What are you currently playing?

[NerfedFalcon]

FF7.

What even is Cait Seith? Is it a stuffed animal controlled by Reeve or is it alive? The game seems really inconsistent on this and I don't understand why. Maybe it's just the awful translation shining through that it makes no sense. I also don't understand why they even let a giant fortune telling stuffed animal join them to begin with, even before he started threatening them. The whole concept is just strange.

It's supposed to be just a robot controlled by Reeve, but I can definitely see the initial ambiguity of the situation combined with the bad translation making it difficult to tell.

(Yet somehow they managed to get the proper Gaelic spelling of 'Cait Sith' from the Japanese transliteration of 'ket shee'. Go figure.)

 

[Drathnoxis]

It's supposed to be just a robot controlled by Reeve, but I can definitely see the initial ambiguity of the situation combined with the bad translation making it difficult to tell.

(Yet somehow they managed to get the proper Gaelic spelling of 'Cait Sith' from the Japanese transliteration of 'ket shee'. Go figure.)

The part that makes it really confusing is when they sacrifice themselves in the temple of the ancients and are like "There's only one me, don't forget me when another Cait Sith comes along!"

 

[NerfedFalcon]

The part that makes it really confusing is when they sacrifice themselves in the temple of the ancients and are like "There's only one me, don't forget me when another Cait Sith comes along!"

Okay, so, my understanding of that scene is that it's meant to make you think that death doesn't matter. Cait Sith 'dies' and immediately comes back, like half the cast of FF4 at various points, to lull you into a false sense of security, "Oh, nobody really dies in this game, huh", immediately before Aerith leaves the party.

Just like Cait Sith, obviously this is temporary and she's coming back any minute now.

 

[BrawlMan]

I'm currently replaying Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Whilst I really like the setting and storytelling, the combat - whilst still fun - has been completely surpassed by DOOM 2016, to the point where this seems quite mediocre in comparison.

The problem here is that most enemies are either generic soldiers, which can usually be eliminated by a single shot to the head, or they're big robots, which regardless of size or perceived threat, usually take about as much thought to bring down as a Hunter in Halo 1. The biggest challenge really, is the abundance of hitscan weapons in the hands of your enemies, which naturally deplete your health and shield without much chance of avoiding it.

Its still a fun time, but it is interesting to see how quickly it has been outclassed, by one of Machine Games' sister studios, no less.

A lot of shooters have outclassed Wolfestein: The New Order now. Especially all of the boomer shooters or Shadow Warrior 3.

I played Undercover Cops (SNES) Retrobit English Translation. Not as good as the arcade, but still pretty good.

 

[meiam]

The part that makes it really confusing is when they sacrifice themselves in the temple of the ancients and are like "There's only one me, don't forget me when another Cait Sith comes along!"

I guess its supposed to be more like an AI, every caith sith would be made the same, but then would develop personality over time. The original dies in the temple, a new one shows up, sorta same personality but without memory of what they did before.

The weird thing is that this comic relief character is used in an important story point.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I guess its supposed to be more like an AI, every caith sith would be made the same, but then would develop personality over time. The original dies in the temple, a new one shows up, sorta same personality but without memory of what they did before.

The weird thing is that this comic relief character is used in an important story point.

That doesn't make sense, though, because Cait Sith is IIRC being directly controlled by Reeve, not handled by an AI.

 

[BrawlMan]

@NerfedFalcon, I just played Batman Forever: The Arcade Game. I have not touched this game since 1998. I forgot how bat-shit insane and difficult this game is. Not the best brawler and way too cheap in difficulty, but at least it has co-op, and is on the decent side of Batman games. The digitized graphics are clearly of the times though. I enjoy it for some weird reason.

 

[meiam]

That doesn't make sense, though, because Cait Sith is IIRC being directly controlled by Reeve, not handled by an AI.

Reeves could just take control of it at important point, or can give it basic order that the ai follow. Otherwise it would mean that Reeve would have to be physically at the control 24/7, which couldn't possibly be true.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Reeves could just take control of it at important point, or can give it basic order that the ai follow. Otherwise it would mean that Reeve would have to be physically at the control 24/7, which couldn't possibly be true.

I don't buy that Reeve would trust an AI to communicate with the rest of the party, at least not in any of the scenes where he's interacting with them. It's possible he could leave one running to handle combat and following the group around, but not more than that.

Maybe that's just personal bias though. Anyway, point is, I'd attribute most if not all of CS's major dialogue to Reeve.

 

[Ezekiel]

Have played Max Payne 3 for almost four hours. I am in the bus depot chapter with the pregnant Giovanna. Started on Hard and switched to Old School somewhere to get rid of the stupid last stand.

Very little Bullettime (TM) used. It's as overpowered as in F.E.A.R. Would never put that in my shooter, would leave the button/key for something else and then let the player use slow motion if they want in an instant replay of the level, like in racing games. It's almost essential when you're flying through the air, but in those moments it activates automatically, without the button.

A lot of crouching used. PhoenixMGS told me a few years ago that it's a useless action. It definitely does help stay behind cover, better than the sticky cover system that doesn't let you go around corners and makes you a sitting duck, and you can duck under bullets too. Too bad there's not a prone too, when holding the crouch button. I would have let Max crawl. Crouch kill also looks good. Remedy was lame to make Jesse stand up when shooting in Control.

Spoiler

I didn't remember some of the enemy locations, which is nice. Levels are much too narrow, though. Also too many cutscenes, always scripting you into cover again.

These later enemies have been more enjoyable to fight, but enemies should have been able to shoot-dodge since the first game, at least some of them. Shame. Shooting everyone in the head makes me sad that there are not more good first-person VR shooters after Half-Life: Alyx, because just pointing with the mouse is too easy. Max Payne 3 overcomes it somewhat with the more numerous later enemies and helmets, especially in the police station, but the problem is still there. Alyx in 2021 was the only VR game I fully played. Rest of the pickings look too lame to justify the purchase. Studios don't take it seriously.

Nice playing a third-person shooter where I don't have to wait for my health to regenerate or fucking craft. Allows the action to be so much more active.

 

[Worgen]

I'm currently replaying Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Whilst I really like the setting and storytelling, the combat - whilst still fun - has been completely surpassed by DOOM 2016, to the point where this seems quite mediocre in comparison.

Ehh, I wouldn't say surpassed unless you view all fps games as the same. Wolfenstein is more of an modern old school movement shooter while doom 2016 and on are modern movement shooters. Dash that you have to use vs slide that you forget exists kinda thing. Both are run and gun but in different ways.

I really should replay the new wolfenstine games. I remember them being fun and this time in the new colossus my computer wont be shitting bricks during the court room stage. Although if I replay an fps game it will have to compete with me replaying Hedon for the 7th time, which is hard for any fps game to compete with.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Machinarium.

I think for a fairly traditional point and click adventure game there're too many logic puzzles of the back-of-the-cereal-box variety that feel like distractions or interruptions. My least favorite was a cluttered pipe maze that has you use three wrenches on key parts of the cluttered mess in order to shut off water flow in one of six pipes. Another bit has you rearrange beads on strings in a maze. Actually it's mostly just these intolerably cluttered mazes designed to irritate you by having zero elbow room for maneuvering tiles or dots or whatever.

There's also a number of arcady bits. You have to play Space Invaders at one point. There's a hint book included in the game that flat out tells you what to do, but you have to play a godless variation of Flappy Bird to unlock it for each screen, so you're better off without.

 

[Bedinsis]

Finished Machinarium.

I think for a fairly traditional point and click adventure game there're too many logic puzzles of the back-of-the-cereal-box variety that feel like distractions or interruptions. My least favorite was a cluttered pipe maze that has you use three wrenches on key parts of the cluttered mess in order to shut off water flow in one of six pipes. Another bit has you rearrange beads on strings in a maze. Actually it's mostly just these intolerably cluttered mazes designed to irritate you by having zero elbow room for maneuvering tiles or dots or whatever.

There's also a number of arcady bits. You have to play Space Invaders at one point. There's a hint book included in the game that flat out tells you what to do, but you have to play a godless variation of Flappy Bird to unlock it for each screen, so you're better off without.

It had really charming graphics.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It had really charming graphics.

It really did.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Playing Immortals Fenyx Rising. Yes, yes, I know, poor man's BOTW. I play mostly smol indie 2D stuff where you burrow through a grimy labyrinth, maybe I miss prancing and gliding under a glorious skybox now and then. And Minecraft wasn't doing it because I couldn't find iron to make shears to gather wool to craft a bed to fix my spawn point, so fuck it. Immortals Fenyx Rising it is. Plus I'm on a Greek myth kick since I picked up the Odyssey. Fenyx has the broad farcical equivalent, but that still works for me.

 

[Worgen]

Grabbed Returnal and have been playing it between too many other games. Its fun, but very a roguelike. Confusing story that you get piece by piece, gradually unlocking new weapons, gradually unlocking new traversal/key things, etc etc. Its cool, the movement feels good, shooting feels good, character is interesting, enemies are interesting, but I think the roguelike nature of it is kinda hurting it for me since I think at this point I'm burned out on roguelikes that aren't as good as Binding of Issac, which is still top tier, partly because of how limited you are, lets you have more character for items and such.

 

[Bartholen]

Finished up a playthrough of Bloodborne. Yep, still my favorite game of all time. This time I ran the Stake Driver and Beast Claw, which are both really fun weapons. The Stake Driver in particular feels incredibly powerful with fast attacks, wide range and high damage, and it's got that really satisfying charged heavy that feels fantastic when you pull it off.

I've then moved on to Metaphor: ReFantazio and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, because I'm only like an hour in. I don't play JRPGs much at all, and especially the modern ones are a complete mystery to me. So far it's okay, it's very anime which is quite an adjustment from Bloodborne's incredibly obtuse and minimalist storytelling. I appreciate how the turn-based battles can be over in mere seconds. The one thing that's stood out to me the most, and has me the most worried, is the NPC chatter bubbles that show up in settlements. As far as I can tell there's no way to turn them off or make them stop appearing. They show up so frequently that they can easily block most of the top half of the screen, blocking my view of the environment. It's incredibly annoying and immersion-breaking. Why am I not allowed to take in the environment to appreciate the art design and graphics? I cannot imagine what the devs were smoking when they added it (or maybe it's a leftover from Persona, haven't played those).

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Finished up a playthrough of Bloodborne. Yep, still my favorite game of all time. This time I ran the Stake Driver and Beast Claw, which are both really fun weapons. The Stake Driver in particular feels incredibly powerful with fast attacks, wide range and high damage, and it's got that really satisfying charged heavy that feels fantastic when you pull it off.

I often wonder what it would be like for me to go back to BB. It was the first From to hook me, make me interested in hard games for the first time since I was a child, and yes is easily a top 5 game of all time for me.
But I've since burned out completely on Souls games and I never want to run-back to a 2-phase boss fight again.
I actually tried going back to Dark Souls- got up to the Capra Demon, and remembered why I'm done with this crap (I had previously gotten platinum so it's not like I couldn't beat if I tried since I already did 3x).

I switched back to PC so I can't play BB and that's fine and I'm not out here clamoring for it to be on PC and all that.
But IF.... IF... it did ever come to PC with a remake or some such, I would probably be tempted. I don't know how much of it being by far my favorite From game is due to it being my first and how much it is the aesthetic. My goodness- those creatures, that sound design, the m-f'ing SAWBLADE and using it to eviscerate a troll after blasting him in his stupid face when he charges at me.
On the other hand, I would probably quit at the Shadows of Yarnam boss. 3 of them? wtf no

 

[Bartholen]

I often wonder what it would be like for me to go back to BB. It was the first From to hook me, make me interested in hard games for the first time since I was a child, and yes is easily a top 5 game of all time for me.
But I've since burned out completely on Souls games and I never want to run-back to a 2-phase boss fight again.
I actually tried going back to Dark Souls- got up to the Capra Demon, and remembered why I'm done with this crap (I had previously gotten platinum so it's not like I couldn't beat if I tried since I already did 3x).

I switched back to PC so I can't play BB and that's fine and I'm not out here clamoring for it to be on PC and all that.
But IF.... IF... it did ever come to PC with a remake or some such, I would probably be tempted. I don't know how much of it being by far my favorite From game is due to it being my first and how much it is the aesthetic. My goodness- those creatures, that sound design, the m-f'ing SAWBLADE and using it to eviscerate a troll after blasting him in his stupid face when he charges at me.
On the other hand, I would probably quit at the Shadows of Yarnam boss. 3 of them? wtf no

For me Bloodborne hits the right sweet spot of Fromsoft gameplay in all the most important areas: it's fast-paced and mobile, but still deliberate and weighty. DS1 was clunky in many ways, DS2 was very floaty, and games from DS3 onwards turned into anime-style rolling contests. In BB I still feel like every move and dodge I make matters, and I can't just infinitely panic roll. The bosses are for the most part balanced and fun to fight against, and hadn't yet devolved into what I call "real-time turn-based gameplay" where the bosses just swoosh and jump all over the place. Shadows of Yharnam might in fact be the most enjoyable and balanced gank fight Fromsoft have ever made. In terms of available gameplay styles it's obviously much more limited, which makes it more like Sekiro in the sense that the core gameplay experience won't change much from playthrough to playthrough, but the available weapons and tools are varied enough that it doesn't get stale either. The much smaller weapon pool means each of them has to be distinct, and they all have their own little quirks and dynamics.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

For me Bloodborne hits the right sweet spot of Fromsoft gameplay in all the most important areas: it's fast-paced and mobile, but still deliberate and weighty. DS1 was clunky in many ways, DS2 was very floaty, and games from DS3 onwards turned into anime-style rolling contests. In BB I still feel like every move and dodge I make matters, and I can't just infinitely panic roll. The bosses are for the most part balanced and fun to fight against, and hadn't yet devolved into what I call "real-time turn-based gameplay" where the bosses just swoosh and jump all over the place. Shadows of Yharnam might in fact be the most enjoyable and balanced gank fight Fromsoft have ever made. In terms of available gameplay styles it's obviously much more limited, which makes it more like Sekiro in the sense that the core gameplay experience won't change much from playthrough to playthrough, but the available weapons and tools are varied enough that it doesn't get stale either. The much smaller weapon pool means each of them has to be distinct, and they all have their own little quirks and dynamics.

Oh... I love it when I have a vague thought in the back of my end and someone puts it into words.

Dammit now I kinda wanna play BB.... Hey, you know what- they should release it on PC in 60 fps!