You're riding the cars, not raiding them. Hope that helps.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Well, I will be playing Routine and Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow. Routine was first teased... I want to say five or six years ago? And the "cassette futurism" angle looks pretty cool. I'm also a longtime fan of the Thief series as well as someone who enjoys VR, though I do feel for other fans who can't/don't want to play in VR.
Little Nightmares II
If Jan Svankmajer made a movie version of Ico.
If Jan Svankmajer made a movie version of Ico.
Recently finished Owlcat's Rogue Trader after many breaks.
So, some sort of rambling overview or some shit... SPOILERS
Chapter 1: A bit OTT 40K, but I suppose it comes with the territory. Got to introduce the setting properly in an RPG, so maybe not to my taste but a good move.
Chapter 2: Nice bit of empire building/management mixed with the standard CRPG missions and space battles. Probably my favourite part.
Chapter 3: Ugh. Railroaded kidnap section away from all the cool empire building stuff. That said slowly healing yourself, building up equipment again and finding you companions to break out was quite satisfying. It gets a pass.
Chapter 4: More of chapter 2 basically. Good.
"Chapter" 5: Final battle section cut off from the rest of the map. Eh.... Got end it somehow I suppose.
Mechanically the levelling system has a lot of confusing skills/level up talents/perks etc that give you a bonus to something in specific conditions and that bonus was some sort of equation based on your stats, numbers of enemy, enemy "difficulty level", weapon stats, the phase of the moon, how many cups of coffee youve had that day, your dogs star sign... Basically a load of shit your never going to choose you because you have no idea what it actually does, or to what extent it does it. So you'll probably just stick to the skills etc that provide obvious bonuses. +15% to parry in a D100 system? Easy. I'll take that over WP modifier/2 + number of enemies x armour value% -pen % value to persuasion rolls if there's an R in the month.
But overall I liked the gameplay a lot. Played on Normal difficulty and the turn based squad RPG combat was good. Team was somewhat overpowered, the Navigator companion was especially brutal early to mid game but got overtaken a by the end.
Different roles were interesting. A few I couldn't really get my head round their purpose, especially the mid tier roles, again, a lot of very lengthy explanations of different talents, bonuses, buff, debuffs, DoT etc etc. This meant to that much as with level ups I ended up sticking with a preferred squad of companions that I knew how to use.
The morality system could have done with a few more choices on various bits of dialogue but that's always going to be a complaint with these kinds of RPGs.
Story wise, it was okOh shit! The Inquisitor was behind all this fuckery. Suprise, surprise. The main impetus to carry on was the level up/get loot/expand empire rather than the story .
The assassin companion quest was actually pretty good story wise though. A real, "well shit, I got totally played there" moment in the final chapter. Definitely a lesson in no good deed goes unpunished for me and my iconoclast ways. I had been pretty uncompromising in dealing with obvious heresy but secret sneaky heresy of a particular kind gave me a slap in the face I won't forget in this storyline. The opposite of the main story. Actual surprise.
I went Voidborn Naval officer background. Officer & tactician roles and went high fellowship and willpower. Concentrated on giving party extra turns & buffs plus very high fellowship skills(I think persuasion was just over 300 [maybe 200, my memory is terrible] by the end before they rejigged the officer starting bonuses). Mostly iconoclast with a bit of dogmatic. No heresy!
Executed Idira as a danger to the shipafter the warp ghost incident (though I probably would have given her the benefit of the doubt if her charactersheet hadn't clearly labelled her as heretical...)
Tried to make nice with Yrliet for the sake of an idealistic view that resources for both races would be better spent fighting actual threats rather than each other, even after her dark eldar cock up and her being such an unlikeable tool. I even inadvertently stated a romance with her. She storms into the bridge, goes on a massive racist tirade, I try to persuade her to give us mon-keigh a chance, she walks out in a huff and I get a steam achievement pop up for starting a romance with a companion. If that's eldar courtship ritual, I think I know why they're dying out. I did not pursue any further.
Didn't really use her in party though.
So, some sort of rambling overview or some shit... SPOILERS
Chapter 1: A bit OTT 40K, but I suppose it comes with the territory. Got to introduce the setting properly in an RPG, so maybe not to my taste but a good move.
Chapter 2: Nice bit of empire building/management mixed with the standard CRPG missions and space battles. Probably my favourite part.
Chapter 3: Ugh. Railroaded kidnap section away from all the cool empire building stuff. That said slowly healing yourself, building up equipment again and finding you companions to break out was quite satisfying. It gets a pass.
Chapter 4: More of chapter 2 basically. Good.
"Chapter" 5: Final battle section cut off from the rest of the map. Eh.... Got end it somehow I suppose.
Mechanically the levelling system has a lot of confusing skills/level up talents/perks etc that give you a bonus to something in specific conditions and that bonus was some sort of equation based on your stats, numbers of enemy, enemy "difficulty level", weapon stats, the phase of the moon, how many cups of coffee youve had that day, your dogs star sign... Basically a load of shit your never going to choose you because you have no idea what it actually does, or to what extent it does it. So you'll probably just stick to the skills etc that provide obvious bonuses. +15% to parry in a D100 system? Easy. I'll take that over WP modifier/2 + number of enemies x armour value% -pen % value to persuasion rolls if there's an R in the month.
But overall I liked the gameplay a lot. Played on Normal difficulty and the turn based squad RPG combat was good. Team was somewhat overpowered, the Navigator companion was especially brutal early to mid game but got overtaken a by the end.
Different roles were interesting. A few I couldn't really get my head round their purpose, especially the mid tier roles, again, a lot of very lengthy explanations of different talents, bonuses, buff, debuffs, DoT etc etc. This meant to that much as with level ups I ended up sticking with a preferred squad of companions that I knew how to use.
The morality system could have done with a few more choices on various bits of dialogue but that's always going to be a complaint with these kinds of RPGs.
Story wise, it was okOh shit! The Inquisitor was behind all this fuckery. Suprise, surprise. The main impetus to carry on was the level up/get loot/expand empire rather than the story .
The assassin companion quest was actually pretty good story wise though. A real, "well shit, I got totally played there" moment in the final chapter. Definitely a lesson in no good deed goes unpunished for me and my iconoclast ways. I had been pretty uncompromising in dealing with obvious heresy but secret sneaky heresy of a particular kind gave me a slap in the face I won't forget in this storyline. The opposite of the main story. Actual surprise.
I went Voidborn Naval officer background. Officer & tactician roles and went high fellowship and willpower. Concentrated on giving party extra turns & buffs plus very high fellowship skills(I think persuasion was just over 300 [maybe 200, my memory is terrible] by the end before they rejigged the officer starting bonuses). Mostly iconoclast with a bit of dogmatic. No heresy!
Executed Idira as a danger to the shipafter the warp ghost incident (though I probably would have given her the benefit of the doubt if her charactersheet hadn't clearly labelled her as heretical...)
Tried to make nice with Yrliet for the sake of an idealistic view that resources for both races would be better spent fighting actual threats rather than each other, even after her dark eldar cock up and her being such an unlikeable tool. I even inadvertently stated a romance with her. She storms into the bridge, goes on a massive racist tirade, I try to persuade her to give us mon-keigh a chance, she walks out in a huff and I get a steam achievement pop up for starting a romance with a companion. If that's eldar courtship ritual, I think I know why they're dying out. I did not pursue any further.
Didn't really use her in party though.
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I played my rogue trader as hardcore dogmatic, so yeah, didn't have the widest selection of party members at the end. Not that it mattered, since Argenta heavy bolter'd everything into mulch anyway.
Sort of. I think they started about 12-13 years ago, stopped and had a long pause, and restarted a few 5-6 years ago.
Looking forward to it - the retro aesthetics look fantastic.
I hated this. I hated it so much I tried to get through it as quickly as possible so I missed a key companion interaction which screwed my endings.
On one hand it has that "Half-Life Xen" moment, where there's a whole feel to things and you're enjoying it, and suddenly it suddenly dumps you into this completely disjointed bit that feels completely different and sits wrongly.
Secondly, the RPG computer game trope of taking the party's stuff away and making them make scrape by until they find all their old kit again (which has been conveniently all left in a chest somewhere) is famously despised. Players and reviewers were complaining about it 30 goddamn years ago, it hasn't got any better. Why does any developer do it?
Otherwise, you know, it's all okay. I find the sort of "strategy layer" of Owlcat Games disappointing. It didn't work properly in Wrath of the Righteous and doesn't in Rogue Trader. Both feel like a half-arsed add-on.
Yeah the game was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy, by the end of chapter 3 enemy just literally never got to act as Argenta just mowed everything into a fine mist. Even not using her, navigator can just solo every encounter.
Cause they were, same for kingmaker, I understand they want to add some sort of gimmick to differentiate each entry, but it just doesn't work because they don't make it a core experience.
I played the game very paragon type, cause I just don't really like to miss content by killing people. Its a bit awkward that you even can in 40K. Yrliet was... weird, kinda, her backstabbing you was very awkward, she did it for such a small thing compare to some of the other stuff we go trough together. I still kept her around as I wouldn't want to miss content, but realistically she should have been spaced. Same for the dark elf guy, kept him around for content, but really no reason.
I think the ending kinda overplayed itself, having us kill a quasi god was maybe too big, especially if you become buddy buddy with it after.
My squad was basically Pascal, Cassia, Argenta, Abelard and Heinrix the whole way through.
Idira was useful but as an Ex navy captain I couldn't risk the ship. Solomorne was cool but came in far too late (due to DLC release time) and the dog mechanic was more than I wanted to learn at the later stage of the game, same with Spacewolf guy (also difficult to get through small gaps, and being a space wolf). Yrliet was too much of knob. Jae was just annoying and redundant. Incendia came in far too late. Deathcultist woman was too angsty goth 40k grimdark.
Me too, I was so pissed off Ifast forwarded through the initial "trial" section so missed a load of stuff. When the rest of the companions marched Yrliet onto the bridge and demanded she be executed I was a bit perplexed as to why (other than standard 40K attitudes).
Ultimately, I would rather have had more content like chapter 2&4, but once I started to get going with getting the team back together it was "ok". Now, if it had been avoidable instead of forced I think my opinion of it would actually have been pretty good. As an alternative to a TPK in PnP it's a good idea. As a forced section in a CRPG...yeah, it does piss people off. Pretty sure I stopped playing for a few months after the start of chapter 3.
I enjoyed the "empire building" aspect of it, but yes, there wasn't really much point other than getting a few bonuses as far as I could see, there was no actual gameplay to the strategic element. you built up your colonies, they gave you the odd bonus to your character or bit of equipment and that was it. I was kind of expecting you might have more to the missions where you had to solve colony problems rather than "go to colony, click choice, end problem".
Yeah, Agree, I don't think I used a medkit or heal in the game other than after blundering over a trap to heal the little lightening thing. The only time anyone got knocked out was when Heinrix warp exploded and I accidentally shot Abelard with a tank.
...oh shit! Marzhai! I forgot he existed. I killed him in the arena. It wasn't really obvious where the point of no return on him was. I would have killed him even if it had been obvious, but still...
I tried out Darktide since it's on sale right now and free for the weekend. I only played one mission so far, and it seems like a pretty complex game. It's ultimately a horde shooter, but it seems like it's a lot more team-focused than Space Marine 2. There's a whole hub area with various systems I didn't get to, multiple currencies which I don't know what they're used for, and during the gameplay there were all sorts of icons on the screen I had no idea what they did.
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Its much more lf4 style then Space Marine 2 is. Really in Space Marine 2 your main concern with going out alone is just being overwhelmed but a really good player doesn't have to worry that much about it. You have more of the special style of enemies in Darktide and its got a pretty advanced melee system. Personally I think I like Space Marine 2 better, but both are quite good. Just need a good Tau game now or even Aldari.
Finished Little Nightmares 2.
The fans of these things are rabid about the story and the characters. I'm at an age where I have to keep reminding myself that literally every piece of media I brush past is somebody's first exposure to an old and trite literary device, or otherwise some terribly intricate truth about the human condition, and will carry a tremendous emotional impact for them. Somebody will one day read Anna Karenina and go "I'm getting a lot of Little Nightmares 2 vibes out of this".
Like OK I don't want to be pedantic about it but everything in this game is so loosely presented and vaguely defined, and nobody is given a voice, a name or an identity, and everything is so godamn abstract and conceptual, that I don't understand how you land the plane, emotionally speaking. I compared it to Ico earlier and that's another mostly silent, context-free boy and girl escape story that actually makes it work, because you're given stuff to work with without even realizing it. Whereas the "story" here is pitch meeting-shallow.
The hospital bit was scary though!
The fans of these things are rabid about the story and the characters. I'm at an age where I have to keep reminding myself that literally every piece of media I brush past is somebody's first exposure to an old and trite literary device, or otherwise some terribly intricate truth about the human condition, and will carry a tremendous emotional impact for them. Somebody will one day read Anna Karenina and go "I'm getting a lot of Little Nightmares 2 vibes out of this".
Like OK I don't want to be pedantic about it but everything in this game is so loosely presented and vaguely defined, and nobody is given a voice, a name or an identity, and everything is so godamn abstract and conceptual, that I don't understand how you land the plane, emotionally speaking. I compared it to Ico earlier and that's another mostly silent, context-free boy and girl escape story that actually makes it work, because you're given stuff to work with without even realizing it. Whereas the "story" here is pitch meeting-shallow.
The hospital bit was scary though!
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Its really made to be played with a regular group, I can't imagine it would be any fun solo, or with rando.
You don't get it! Something something time loop, something something Six is actually evil! It's just too deep for you.
Yeah, it's a fun game, but story telling tour de force, it is not.
That's very much the impression I got. Most of the time I was just trying to keep up with the randos I went on the mission with. The game seemed pretty uncompromising and to demand tight coordination with the team.
That's it, the game is going for shock (the beginning is the end! The good guy was the bad guy! So and so betrays you!) but has nothing to work with, so it's all "Wouldn't it be interesting if this happened in a story?" but cannot go beyond presenting the idea.
Crystal cave is more annoying than I remember. Finding the invisible path with the falling ice and prism stones is not fun. Was looking for where to continue from the golden golem and then my character slipped on the incline.
I missed more character encounters, and can't remember how they were triggered. The sorcerer didn't appear in the big cell in the archives. Think I missed his apprentice in Sen's Fortress. Siegmeyer of Catarina didn't appear in the lava place because I forgot that I have to meet him by the Great Hollow, but I met him everywhere else, and his daughter.
Started upgrading Faith late in this playthrough, then remembered that miracles are really expensive, require really high Faith.
I missed more character encounters, and can't remember how they were triggered. The sorcerer didn't appear in the big cell in the archives. Think I missed his apprentice in Sen's Fortress. Siegmeyer of Catarina didn't appear in the lava place because I forgot that I have to meet him by the Great Hollow, but I met him everywhere else, and his daughter.
Started upgrading Faith late in this playthrough, then remembered that miracles are really expensive, require really high Faith.
I got the new Shinobi: Art of Vengeance and will be playing later today. I did play and beat the demo, so the first stage is already completed.