What are you currently playing?

[BrawlMan]

Started Sonic Adventure 2. Initial impressions:

You playing the Dreamcast or GamCube version?

The game has its flaws, but I think it still holds up well. Kunckle/Rouge stages aside. I highly do prefer Sonic Adventure 2 over SA1. The second game has a tighter structure and better gameplay for me. SA1 stops, being fun the moment you are playing Big the Cat. What the hell was Sega, even thinking of this character or his gameplay?

As for the story, it still holds up pretty well too. I have no idea what you're talking about on things just happening for no reason. Yes, there are moments where it's made ambiguous or no exact details are given, but at least the later games expand on this when they bring back Shadow. I do admit that the Sonic 3 movie does the story better compared to SA2. Especially when it's Sonic giving Shadow to heart to heart talk, instead of Amy. Consider they barely interacted much in SA2. Though both are still better than Chris Thorndyke trying to talk Shadow down from blowing up the planet.

 

[Worgen]

Well over a thousand, but I can't remember any other that somehow:

Contradict everything the game taught you.
Has the player party do 100% of what the bad guys want.
Reward all the terrible decision character have done.
Rely on Deus Ex to fix everything.
Are complete non sense.

It like the dev wanted to insult you for even playing the game in the first place.

Never said the games story didn't have issues.
If the bad guy wants you to kill him and will do bad things if you don't then what are you to do? Not like this is Deltarune.
The whole story is about deus ex machinas there are like 7 of them. Having one decide to save you at the end is pretty fitting.

 

[Worgen]

The game has its flaws, but I think it still holds up well. Kunckle/Rouge stages aside.

Don't forget that the Rouge stages have Rouge.

 

[BrawlMan]

Don't forget that the Rouge stages have Rouge.

I know. Even then, I still don't find their treasure hunting stages that bad nor as bad as people like to exaggerate. Both of their stages actually have most of the best songs for their stage themes.

 

[BrawlMan]

@NerfedFalcon, as for cutscene direction, you have to cut Sega some slack. It's janky in a good amount of places, but it's much better than the first game's cutscene, direction. This was still early 3d, and even at the time, people were either trying to new things or figure stuff out

 

[thebobmaster]

FTR: It's implied that rogue city takes place after the second movie, but before the third movie. So the second movie still happened. Though I can't blame anyone for ignoring it. The second film I don't find that bad though.

Not just implied, they directly namedrop Kain in the past tense, and Nuke is everywhere.

 

[Worgen]

I know. Even then, I still don't find their treasure hunting stages that bad nor as bad as people like to exaggerate. Both of their stages actually have most of the best songs for their stage themes.

Yeah, the treasure hunting is annoying, but not the worst.

 

[laggyteabag]

Been a little while!

I'vebeen playing a lot of multiplayer games recently, namely Fortnite, and Helldivers 2, and i've been really putting off playing Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, because I'm just not vibing with it.

So i've resolved to just bash my way through the main story, by way of setting the game to the easiest difficulty, and using mods to give myself infinite force powers, and honestly, this has actually greatly improved my enjoyment of the combat. Something always felt odd about my lightsaber doing damage equivalent to a pool noodle. Now enemy health has been lowered quite dramatically, and unlimited force powers allow me to use such force techniques more regularly like *checks notes* a heavy lightsaber attack.

As an aside, I find the dual-bladed style to be mostly useless here. It looks fun, but it is definitely geared more to AoE attacks, but I find that (even when I wasn't playing on Easy) enemies come in very small groups anyway, and it is usually just more efficient to use the single-bladed style. But maybe that is just me.

Otherwise, im pretty pumped to check this particular box. I like everything else about the game, but im just not vibing with the combat and general pacing.

 

[thebobmaster]

Been a little while!

I'vebeen playing a lot of multiplayer games recently, namely Fortnite, and Helldivers 2, and i've been really putting off playing Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, because I'm just not vibing with it.

So i've resolved to just bash my way through the main story, by way of setting the game to the easiest difficulty, and using mods to give myself infinite force powers, and honestly, this has actually greatly improved my enjoyment of the combat. Something always felt odd about my lightsaber doing damage equivalent to a pool noodle. Now enemy health has been lowered quite dramatically, and unlimited force powers allow me to use such force techniques more regularly like *checks notes* a heavy lightsaber attack.

As an aside, I find the dual-bladed style to be mostly useless here. It looks fun, but it is definitely geared more to AoE attacks, but I find that (even when I wasn't playing on Easy) enemies come in very small groups anyway, and it is usually just more efficient to use the single-bladed style. But maybe that is just me.

Otherwise, im pretty pumped to check this particular box. I like everything else about the game, but im just not vibing with the combat and general pacing.

Using mods? You're not only cheating the game, but cheating YOURSELF!

I played on console, so lowering the difficulty was my only option. I totally would have modded it if I could, because I liked the story, but the combat just felt...lacking. It wasn't even just the relatively lackluster amount of damage, it just felt so repetitive for a Soulslike.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Don't forget that the Rouge stages have Rouge.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I got into XCOM 2, but I don't feel that much drive to go back to it. Maybe it's because I just recently had another bout of permadeath tactical gameplay with Darkest Dungeon, but XCOM 2 just doesn't feel that fun. I feel like the only way to victory, or at least victory without terrible casualties, is to just savescum. The way the game reveals enemies constantly throws wrenches into your game plan, often forcing a restart because you lose a soldier in the first few turns to an ability you had no possible way to know of beforehand. Like in the first game, it's often near impossible to determine whether an enemy can see your units from a position or not before moving into it, and inversely you'll often end up in a situation where it looks like you should see enemy units, but for some arbitrary reason don't.

Now all of the above was also present in the first game, but the second throws in more elements that push it over the edge of nonenjoyment for me. Unlike in the first, there is now a long-term ticking clock, and you have to traverse a world map to get to different missions. It feels like you can't really take your time and are instead forced to rush on, scraping by with whatever scraps you can gather along the way. Money and resources feel much tighter while the game also constantly bombards you with new missions and tasks.

Were you using the tips I gave you? (Hehe, I didn't actually remember that, just came across it while searching for my old post on the game. I suppose 3 years counts as "near future" on some time frames.)

Anyway, XCOM 2 was pretty BS, buggy too. I eventually got stuck because the game was locking up. To quote myself on the issues with the game:

Still playing Xcom 2 despite my better judgement. I said to myself I wasn't going to quit, but as I've shown in the past I have trouble walking away from a challenge. It's like the game is designed to be frustrating, though. I decided to restart because just about my whole roster was injured for 20+ days despite only getting 1 or two minor wounds on most missions. Pod activation is still annoying, especially with rangers. So my rangers stay cloaked when the rest of the party is revealed, which is great because they can keep scoping around and finding out where the pods are, the problem is that I have no idea exactly where the rest of my party can stand without accidentally spotting an alien, so I need to either inch everybody up a bit at a time or just reload when I go too far. It sucks, it feels like I'm fighting the game and not the aliens, but it also feels necessary because giving the aliens a free action on my turn is a HUGE disadvantage. And you really can't afford to take ANY damage because how wounds work is completely insane. If your soldiers take a single hit doing 1-2 points, they could easily end up "gravely wounded" and be out of the action for an ENTIRE MONTH, leading to you running out of skilled soldiers and getting caught in a death spiral. This is completely insane.

Another problem with rangers is the Citizen rescue missions. They are really great at running around and rescuing civvies while cloaked. The big problem is the big monsters that are disguised as humans that you have no way of detecting except by running right up to and blowing cover. So now you are standing directly by something that is going to absolutely shred your hitpoints and you can't move far enough to be out of range. So you can't use your rangers to save civvies, but you need to rush because the aliens are killing them on every turn, but you can't rush because you can't get wounded.

Also I've just met an enemy that gets a free turn EVERY TIME I DO ANYTHING! Man, screw you Fireaxis, it's my bloody turn! What am I supposed to do?! They also have a ludicrous amount of hitpoints. It's not fair and it's not fun, as if activating a pod wasn't bad enough, now you have to worry about activating a pod that's playing the game in real time while you are stuck in turn based!

I never played Enemy Within, maybe I'll just get that and scratch my XCOM itch that way rather than deal with this nonsense.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Been a little while!

I'vebeen playing a lot of multiplayer games recently, namely Fortnite, and Helldivers 2, and i've been really putting off playing Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, because I'm just not vibing with it.

So i've resolved to just bash my way through the main story, by way of setting the game to the easiest difficulty, and using mods to give myself infinite force powers, and honestly, this has actually greatly improved my enjoyment of the combat. Something always felt odd about my lightsaber doing damage equivalent to a pool noodle. Now enemy health has been lowered quite dramatically, and unlimited force powers allow me to use such force techniques more regularly like *checks notes* a heavy lightsaber attack.

As an aside, I find the dual-bladed style to be mostly useless here. It looks fun, but it is definitely geared more to AoE attacks, but I find that (even when I wasn't playing on Easy) enemies come in very small groups anyway, and it is usually just more efficient to use the single-bladed style. But maybe that is just me.

Otherwise, im pretty pumped to check this particular box. I like everything else about the game, but im just not vibing with the combat and general pacing.

Funny I actually found the combat of the Jedi games really fun, and I'm usually a big whiney baby when it comes to difficulty.

I have actually been thinking about a replay of the games because I've been watching a lot of Star Wars stuff lately and it's making me want to pick up a lightsaber (by virtue of picking up a controller).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Enjoying Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. I think the game picks the hell up once you assimilate Kumori and gain some ranged attacks and get to switch to her for certain platforming sections, although it makes replaying earlier levels a bit awkward. And you'll be replaying them a lot whether you're shooting for a higher rank (which unlocks certain stuff at the shop) or going for collectibles (which pay for the stuff). Not sure what the crystal skulls do.

I also made a hobby of defeating every end level boss without taking damage, just for the hell of it.

 

[Worgen]

View attachment 13691

Whats that look? Do you need more Rouge?

 

[BrawlMan]

Whats that look? Do you need more Rouge?

I think it's because the artist draws porn.

 

[Worgen]

I think it's because the artist draws porn.

Saying an artist draws porn is like saying people need to breath.

 

[meiam]

Never said the games story didn't have issues.
If the bad guy wants you to kill him and will do bad things if you don't then what are you to do? Not like this is Deltarune.
The whole story is about deus ex machinas there are like 7 of them. Having one decide to save you at the end is pretty fitting.

I mean, when killing the bad guy will literally kill every humans (you included), no you don't kill him, considering there's literally no worse thing he could do.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Whats that look? Do you need more Rouge?

Not everyone is gonna stop thinking just for the sake of bat titties (batties, if you would).

 

[NerfedFalcon]

You playing the Dreamcast or GamCube version?

The Steam port. IDK which one that's based on but I'm guessing the Gamecube version. I installed a mod to make it work with modern controllers that also fixes the grinding issue from the PC port.

The game has its flaws, but I think it still holds up well. Kunckle/Rouge stages aside. I highly do prefer Sonic Adventure 2 over SA1. The second game has a tighter structure and better gameplay for me. SA1 stops, being fun the moment you are playing Big the Cat. What the hell was Sega, even thinking of this character or his gameplay?

Big the Cat has four missions, the second-least in the game only beaten by (of all characters) Amy, and I managed to complete all of them in under a minute when I was a dumb kid. Sure, it's a massive gameplay change and not an entirely well-thought-out one, but at least it doesn't take up that much time in a full playthrough.

As for the story, it still holds up pretty well too. I have no idea what you're talking about on things just happening for no reason. Yes, there are moments where it's made ambiguous or no exact details are given, but at least the later games expand on this when they bring back Shadow. I do admit that the Sonic 3 movie does the story better compared to SA2. Especially when it's Sonic giving Shadow to heart to heart talk, instead of Amy. Consider they barely interacted much in SA2. Though both are still better than Chris Thorndyke trying to talk Shadow down from blowing up the planet.

Knuckles is searching for the Master Emerald shards in the wilderness, and somehow this causes him to end up in the capital's sewers, in exactly the right place to find where Tails and Amy are hiding from the police. You can't tell me there's a logical reason for that other than "Knuckles needed to be with the rest of Team Sonic, so he found them". Which I get, but it's still dumb. And that's not even getting into the whole deal about "nobody can tell the difference between Sonic and Shadow except each other", which is definitionally an idiot plot.

as for cutscene direction, you have to cut Sega some slack. It's janky in a good amount of places, but it's much better than the first game's cutscene, direction. This was still early 3d, and even at the time, people were either trying to new things or figure stuff out

It's not like I expect every game to be Metal Gear Solid any more than I expect every game to be Sonic Mania, sure, but it's not like it hadn't been done well before that point. Also, in my post I mentioned that a lot of it was the fault of the English dub getting the timings right in the wrong places and wrong everywhere else. I'm pretty sure I could just play with the Japanese voices in the version I have, but at this point I'm doing it for the memes.

Don't forget that the Rouge stages have Rouge.

Neither the Sonic fandom nor the world at large were prepared for Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat to debut in the same game. We're still feeling the aftershocks now.

Yeah, the treasure hunting is annoying, but not the worst.

I know it was just a bad personal experience, but I've definitely had the least fun overall with Knuckles so far. At least the Knuckles raps are amazing.

Not everyone is gonna stop thinking just for the sake of bat titties (batties, if you would).

Sorry, did you say something? I was thinking about batties.

 

[BrawlMan]

Big the Cat has four missions, the second-least in the game only beaten by (of all characters) Amy, and I managed to complete all of them in under a minute when I was a dumb kid. Sure, it's a massive gameplay change and not an entirely well-thought-out one, but at least it doesn't take up that much time in a full playthrough.

I was a kid too, and I still hated them. Having four of them is one too many for me. At least Amy's stages are actually fun.

Knuckles is searching for the Master Emerald shards in the wilderness, and somehow this causes him to end up in the capital's sewers, in exactly the right place to find where Tails and Amy are hiding from the police. You can't tell me there's a logical reason for that other than "Knuckles needed to be with the rest of Team Sonic, so he found them". Which I get, but it's still dumb. And that's not even getting into the whole deal about "nobody can tell the difference between Sonic and Shadow except each other", which is definitionally an idiot plot.

Fine, but at the same time, most people weren't crying about it back then. The only reason people started crying about it was because of YouTube and every wannabe smart ass with camera thinking they're being intelligent by pointing out an old plot hole most didn't care about in the first place. As for Shadow and Sonic confusion plot, I did mention the movie handled this much better and never bothered with it in the first place.

It's not like I expect every game to be Metal Gear Solid any more than I expect every game to be Sonic Mania, sure, but it's not like it hadn't been done well before that point. Also, in my post I mentioned that a lot of it was the fault of the English dub getting the timings right in the wrong places and wrong everywhere else.

There was still a lot of good effort put into most of these, so I don't find them that bad. Also, the Japanese dub still has some lip-syncing issues, even though it was dubbed first.

Neither the Sonic fandom nor the world at large were prepared for Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat to debut in the same game. We're still feeling the aftershocks now.

Both were awesome surprises more than enough people are happy to accept. Glad they're still here. Hopefully Rouge will show up in Sonic 4 (2027) along with Amy.

Not everyone is gonna stop thinking just for the sake of bat titties (batties, if you would).

Titties or not, it was just hilarious SEGA let character like Rouge in a kids games, and she didn't get any controversy from the parents nor boomers back in the day. Those fools were too focused on Mortal Kombat, Doom, GTA, and Half-Life to even bother to pay attention.