What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well shit, Viewfinder's over. Guess I'm kinda glad it was free on PS+. It's the kind of short, zero-replay-value tech demo palate cleanser trinket I wouldn't even look at full price but I'm happy to burn through in one or two quick sessions because it's just so damn neat. And I like any puzzle game that rewards lateral thinking.

 

[BrawlMan]

Been side questing in Yotei a lot. I do love how you can do the Yotei Six in any order, aside from Saito. I did capture and liberate one of Saito's camps. I got a huge reward for it. Met some new characters along the way to add to the Wolk Pack. I gotta start looking for more bamboo locations.

 

[Kyrian007]

I was preparing for The Outer Worlds 2 by going back through the first one... but finished it too quick. In looking for something to do in the meantime, I went back to Starfield... which I kind of dropped in favor of Baldur's Gate 3 at the time. And never got back to because of how difficult I find it to get back into a Bethesda game after getting away from it for a long while. So I decided to give it another chance. Made a new character, went with a different build... and it is clicking with me now. It still is pretty flat by comparison to other Fallout or ES games standard. But I'm honestly thinking it is mostly an issue of not enough butter spread over way too much (and too bland) bread. What it really needed was a severe cutback of scale, and all that saved expense and effort added to the remaining content. Fewer Radiant quests, more and better curated content. A much smaller explored sector of space and fewer reasons to go to the garbage planets. I see the potential, but they buried it in an attempt at a very grand scale.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Yeah its a big slice of game. The Egypt palace is one of my favs, such a good story and great music, plus you can get anubis who is really powerful for pretty much every other palace.

Do you want very mild spoilers?

I'm not spoiler sensitive, so sure.

These last two days I just been powering through August which is all social sim dialogue. Maxxed out Ryoji and Ann (platonic), the maid teacher, the gymnast girl, the politician. Started prioritizing the web admin because he unlocks side quests, the fortune teller because she offers level ups, and the detective because I read he unlocks a secret ending. I deprioritized the doctor once I got her high enough to buy accessories that restore SP and the cafe owner. I started the arms dealer but don't know if his guns perks are worth it and upgraded the chess player a bit but not sure if that is worth it yet.
For actual character stories I find the drunk journalist and student counsel president most interesting- I guess I like investigations and mysteries, and therefore so does my character I'm role playing and will probably choose the "romance" with student president. This would mean I "romanced" the Priestess arcanas in both Personas I've played/playing, and I think I will do same in P3 just for the heck of it, even knowing literally nothing about that game yet.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

P5 is significantly longer than earlier entries. I think P3 and P4 were both 100 hours for me but looking at the playtime listed on PS5 P5 was over 170 hours. I was pretty thorough and got the platinum, though.

I'm kind of glad I'm playing on Switch which doesn't really achievements or platinum so I'm not tempted by that, because I do get quicksanded into completionism for story heavy games.

 

[BrawlMan]

Hunted: The Demon's Forge is pretty fun so far. I know the developers regret making this game, but it at least has a sense of fun and I like the dynamic between the warrior and the elf. Kevduit is right though: this game is literally Norse God of War, but in a generic European medieval fantasy setting. The game is an over-the-shoulder hack n slash with a light and heavy attack button (the face buttons and they cannot be changed nor altered), a bald warrior with a beard, constantly calls their companion by noun 85% of the time (GURL instead of BOI), doesn't have jump and instead a dodge roll, and has the occasional puzzle where your AI partner assist with completing the puzzle. The only other differences being this game is much more light hearted and less serious, and the game can be played in co-op. Why did critics hate this game again?

I am still early in, but this a fun old-school meets the then new-school dungeon crawler. The game has plenty of jank, don't get me wrong, but combat still has some sort of satisfaction and weight to it. I may be speaking a bit too early, but I am having fun at the moment.

 

[Worgen]

I'm not spoiler sensitive, so sure.

These last two days I just been powering through August which is all social sim dialogue. Maxxed out Ryoji and Ann (platonic), the maid teacher, the gymnast girl, the politician. Started prioritizing the web admin because he unlocks side quests, the fortune teller because she offers level ups, and the detective because I read he unlocks a secret ending. I deprioritized the doctor once I got her high enough to buy accessories that restore SP and the cafe owner. I started the arms dealer but don't know if his guns perks are worth it and upgraded the chess player a bit but not sure if that is worth it yet.
For actual character stories I find the drunk journalist and student counsel president most interesting- I guess I like investigations and mysteries, and therefore so does my character I'm role playing and will probably choose the "romance" with student president. This would mean I "romanced" the Priestess arcanas in both Personas I've played/playing, and I think I will do same in P3 just for the heck of it, even knowing literally nothing about that game yet.

Make sure to max out the gymnast and psychiatrist and detective when you can.

I did 2 play throughs, initially with Ann as romantic interest, second with the teacher and the teacher one was so damn cute, plus I didn't realize you can go on more dates after you start dating, which is even cuter.

 

[meiam]

I was preparing for The Outer Worlds 2 by going back through the first one... but finished it too quick. In looking for something to do in the meantime, I went back to Starfield... which I kind of dropped in favor of Baldur's Gate 3 at the time. And never got back to because of how difficult I find it to get back into a Bethesda game after getting away from it for a long while. So I decided to give it another chance. Made a new character, went with a different build... and it is clicking with me now. It still is pretty flat by comparison to other Fallout or ES games standard. But I'm honestly thinking it is mostly an issue of not enough butter spread over way too much (and too bland) bread. What it really needed was a severe cutback of scale, and all that saved expense and effort added to the remaining content. Fewer Radiant quests, more and better curated content. A much smaller explored sector of space and fewer reasons to go to the garbage planets. I see the potential, but they buried it in an attempt at a very grand scale.

Yeah starfield wasn't awful, it just didn't quite work, every system was functional if nothing more but they also didn't really gel into anything special.

Low key excited for outer worlds 2, 1st was fine but I just need more immersive sim and I hope it fill that hole.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Sonic Frontiers: After playing through all of 06 lately and also having experienced several other badly-controlling Sonic games in the past, it's almost a breath of fresh air that Frontiers actually does what it's supposed to pretty much all of the time. About the only control problem I've had so far is not knowing that I've had abilities like the Light Dash until the inputs for them came up in loading screen prompts. Admittedly, that may be because the game's had several years' worth of patches and fixes, but I'm having a great time with this one. Other than trying to get the S-rank time for 1-2, which required me to look up multiple guides because the timer is significantly stricter than any other stage on the first island (at least).

I guess the game could get a bit annoying if you're not into collectathon type stuff, but I don't mind it at all.

 

[Kyrian007]

Yeah starfield wasn't awful, it just didn't quite work, every system was functional if nothing more but they also didn't really gel into anything special.

Low key excited for outer worlds 2, 1st was fine but I just need more immersive sim and I hope it fill that hole.

I'm just kind of hoping for Outer Worlds, that lets me fly the ship like Starfield... but a better engine for spaceflight (and starship customization) than Starfield. I know that isn't what we're getting... but still holding out hope that they have snuck that in as a huge release day surprise.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

"Finished" Hades II.

What the fuck was that? I knew the ending was the worst thing about the game, and I very easily guessed what it would be, but man. If they knew the ending was going to be such a dud, they could have at least put some effort into presenting it.

Still a great game, but yeesh.

 

[Bartholen]

More Crysis 2. In retrospect this era of shooters feels downright quaint now, especially with how hard this game is trying to appeal to the CoD audience. This was at the absolute peak of that franchise's popularity, releasing the same year as MW3, and the influences feel almost pandering: the game takes place in New York City, acting often as an action-packed tour of all the city's landmarks, you've got badass marines, ruthless evil PMC soldiers, between-mission briefings to convey the story, and an escalating series of action setpieces. If I'd played more shooters from that time I'd be tempted to say that this holds up better than a fair bit of its contemporaries: the combat arenas are larger and more dynamic, offering a more varied experience and allowing even non-combat options freely. It just hopelessly pales in comparison to its predecessor: Crysis 1 felt like a game from the future (or now a game from an alternate timeline), whereas Crysis 2 could not feel more like it came out in 2011. It's still fun though unlike, say, Black Ops 1, whose mind-numbing nonstop cacophony just induces a headache these days.

 

[meiam]

"Finished" Hades II.

What the fuck was that? I knew the ending was the worst thing about the game, and I very easily guessed what it would be, but man. If they knew the ending was going to be such a dud, they could have at least put some effort into presenting it.

Still a great game, but yeesh.

Yeah, I guess I can kinda see what they were going for with the ending, but it needed a lot more buildups to works. As is, its so jarring and comes out of left field, almost like it was changed last minutes, or they were planning on having some big finale but ran out of budget and had to rush it out.

Overall, fun game, but clearly inferior to 1.

 

[BrawlMan]

This was at the absolute peak of that franchise's popularity, releasing the same year as MW3, and the influences feel almost pandering: the game takes place in New York City, acting often as an action-packed tour of all the city's landmarks, you've got badass marines, ruthless evil PMC soldiers, between-mission briefings to convey the story, and an escalating series of action setpieces.

Unlike MW3, there is actual color variety and not just a dirty brown/grey filter. This game still looks amazing on 7th gen hardware, along with Crysis 3. Enemies nor allies don't blend into the background constantly. Other than the Ceph foot soldiers, but they can cloak just like you do, so it makes sense. And even then, the player can still keep track of them better than any of the Russians in MW3.

If I'd played more shooters from that time I'd be tempted to say that this holds up better than a fair bit of its contemporaries: the combat arenas are larger and more dynamic, offering a more varied experience and allowing even non-combat options freely. It just hopelessly pales in comparison to its predecessor: Crysis 1

That's really subjective. I do prefer the sequels, even though the first game is a technical marvel. Interesting trivia: each sequel only barely sold better than the last game. Meaning Crysis 3 is the best selling game out of all four games. Back on point, the original falls apart once the Ceph shows up. They have way too much health, even on Easy mode, and the game gets boring for me, and just feels like a tech demo game padded for too much run time. Neither sequels have these issues and are actually much better paced.

whereas Crysis 2 could not feel more like it came out in 2011. It's still fun though unlike, say, Black Ops 1, whose mind-numbing nonstop cacophony just induces a headache these days.

For a 2011 game, Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 still feels more modern compared to a large majority than many of its contemporaries and a lot of modern AAA games today. Especially with the Remastered Trilogy you can get on current and 8th generation consoles. I have no problem agreeing Crysis 2 being better than Black Ops 1. BLOPS as a whole, I find overrated and annoying, aside from Dead-Ops Arcade 1 & 2.

 

[Bartholen]

Finished Crysis 2. Not much more to say than it's fun enough. Weapon and enemy variety aren't great, but the combat's solid, the graphics outstanding and the gameplay scenarios varied and fun. It's also got one of the weakest, most contrived villains I've seen: Col. Lockheart and his men calling you "tin man" and having a personal vendetta (which I was never really clear on aside from Alcatraz killing some of his men) feels hilariously tone deaf amidst an alien invasion and viral outbreak. The upgrade system is also laughably crowbarred in: one of the most expensive upgrades you can get is the ability to track invisible enemies' movements. Those enemies are encountered once. At the literal final encounter of the game. Each of them rewards 5000 upgrade points, which just screams the team going "oh shit oh shit oh shit, we forgot the final upgrade, what do we do?" It's so poorly thought out it's downright funny.

I think one change that would drastically improve the game would be to remove sprinting draining the suit energy. That would make the combat much more mobile and dynamic.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I've been playing a bit of Rollercoaster Tycoon. Every time I think I've made a fun Rollercoaster it turns out the intensity and nausea ratings are at 11 and the excitement is like 3. Like, being exposed to 4.5g acceleration is supposed to be the fun part, right?

 

[Brokencontroller]

Megabonk is pretty fun, it's vampire survivors on a 3d plane and with a few more mechanics. It's got that same "one more run feel" and plays pretty well, though some attacks dont work as well with a 3D field.

 

[BrawlMan]

I managed to beat Castlevania Chronicles Arranged Mode on Normal for the first time. It was worth it to hear the best rendition of the Simon's Theme. I actually like this more than Super Castlevania IV.

 

[meiam]

I've been playing a bit of Rollercoaster Tycoon. Every time I think I've made a fun Rollercoaster it turns out the intensity and nausea ratings are at 11 and the excitement is like 3. Like, being exposed to 4.5g acceleration is supposed to be the fun part, right?

It sounds like they didn't crush a bunch of people from an unfinished ride, 0/10

 

[BrawlMan]

I finished Castlevania: The Adventure (GBC version). This version was released only in Europe as part of the first volume of the Konami GB collection. This version has color and is modified to run at a faster frame rate. Making it much more tolerable to play. I still don't like the downgraded whip mechanic each time you take a hit, and fuck the third stage, but I appreciate the ost, and for turning a 3/10 game into a 6/10.