What are you Playing Now? It's not how you play the game, it's how you place the blame

[Malcador]

6 hours ago, bugarup said:

Imma finally find out what that Citadel DLC is all about!

It was actually enjoyable, even if way out of place in ME3 story wise but I guess we are playing a video game.

New D3 season is fun, added a skill tree full of neat things - like 10% elemental damage, double bounty caches, 60 yard pickup of rift globes.

[LadyCrimson]

Well I became tired of trying to 100% some stuff so I finally did the last Main Quest in Hogwart's.

On Normal, it was probably the easiest final fight I've encountered. It was visually fun tho and the whole game was combat-easy so it fits in.    I don't think their intended/expected audience was Dark Souls aficionado's (which I'm not one of those, either) so it's all good and I can appreciate a game that doesn't constantly sweaty-palm stress me out at all, if that makes sense. I definitely feel like this is an adventure/light puzzle/story game more than anything else.

Anyway, time to try that Hufflepuff start.

[LadyCrimson]

Hufflepuff's common area is prettier than Ravenclaw's. Well, at least imo.

I think House choice changes one or two quests a bit, common room, dominant outfit color schemes, stuff like that. But playing through the early must-do stuff again is feeling ... not worth it, to me. I could always just YT it.

I did like that when you make a new character, you get a whole new set of the full 8 or whatever it is save slots for each one. Separated. So that's nice.

Oh, difficulty setting affects other stuff than only combat, not sure if I mentioned that before. Like how much speed-time you have to not fail learning a new spell, other small stuff like that. I wonder if anything timed/reactive speeds up with some kind of base multiplier, combat and puzzles alike.

[Hawke64]

Finished Blue Fire. Managed to die once to the second-to-final boss. Defeated the final boss on the first attempt, but I doubt that I would be able to do so without looking up the guide after burning through a half of the healing items (the jumping outside of the arena part was unconventional, to put it politely). Overall, the game is fine, but rather light on the story and has some odd gameplay design (the wall-running controls and the sense of depth, in particular).
Review:

Spoiler

Blue Fire is a platformer/metroidvania with combat.

The location design is mostly fine for a platformer - it is expressive and provides the space and challenges for traversal, but it does not quite make sense in terms of realism, with the Void (challenge rooms) having floating platforms with spikes, though in many cases it was hard to tell whether it was the right path. The penalty for falling is very merciful - 1/4 of a heart and returning to the nearest safe platform, except for the Voids, which return to the last checkpoint within the room.

The controls are partially rebindable and comfortable, the movement is very fluid and enjoyable. The only issue is the wall-running - it uses directional input to initiate and stay attached to a wall, which is not optimal in three-dimensional space, when aerial movement is controlled by the same keys. There is an unavoidable early-game sequence which requires traversing a room while utilising the newly-acquired wall-running ability within a time limit, which was rather frustrating, but there were few timed sequences and they were easier.

The traversal abilities, such as double jump or wall-running, are obtained during the course of the main story. The character development system includes the health (for completing the platforming challenges), mana (for XP from combat), damage (the swords found, no difference in the movesets, only a flat damage increase), and passive abilities (e.g. higher movement speed or negating the falling damage). On the other hand, the robes (the only aspect of visual customisation) are somehow amusing, though they do not provide any gameplay advantages. The in-game currency, ore, can be easily farmed, because it respawns within locations upon reloading them. The not-respawning chests, hidden or in the plain view, usually but not always offer it as well.

As for the story, it is certainly present, but somehow as generic as it can be - the protagonist is the Chosen One to save the World and the flying Castle in particular, from the Darkness by visiting several Temples, collecting or activating several magical seals, and defeating the Corrupted Beings within the Temples. There are side quests on the same level.

Similar issue with the combat - it is there, but poorly made. Bosses are diverse, though the early ones are not quite engaging due to the combat system, which itself is serviceable, but neither deep nor satisfying, despite having several attack and defence options. The late-game boss battles have several stages and utilise platforming elements, providing some challenge. Other foes mostly distract from the platforming.

The graphical settings are lacking, but the game is heavily stylised (the main character looks like a balloon with a cape). The sound design is adequate - the dialogues are not voiced, the soundtrack is fitting.

No major bugs have been encountered during the game.

In conclusion, despite the level design and story, the action/platforming-focused gameplay is quite enjoyable, even if simplistic.

 

[Wormerine]

Return of the Obra Dinn

Such a satisfying experience. Easily the best detective game I have played. In case you are unfamiliar with the premise - you get to explore memories of crew of a West India Company ship, and you need to deduce identity, fates and potential killers of each of the crew members. You need to correctly solve three fates for the game confirm those as correct - so cheesing the game would be difficult.

A minor nitpic would be that solving some of the last fates will require abuse of said system - "I have couple candidates, so if I try switching them around and see what combination the game will confirm" - meaning it is actually impossible to exactly determine character's identity without confirmation system's existance. That said, to get there still some deduction and process of elimination has to be made, so I found it satisfying from gamey side (also my brained was also wired by this point to rejoice at the sound que of 3 fates solved - I should make it my morning alarm for a better start of the day).

[edit]Just one YouTube video in, and it is clear enough that I missed at least some of the possible clues. So it is very much possible that all identities are solvable through deduction, but I just brute forced some of the final solutions[/edit]

An actual complain would be that the secret chapter, unlocked only if all available fates are solved was underwhelming. If there was something meaningful to be found in it, than I have missed it.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Wormerine

[Mamoulian War]

On 2/28/2023 at 3:17 PM, Gorth said:

Not so much has played, as I'm curious if anyone here has played Atomic Heart? A soviet version of Fallout in an alternative 1955 scifi. Looks wacky in a fun way. I saw it on steam under new releases, caught my attention and I watched a few more trailers and gameplay videos on Youtube. Sorely tempted. Just a bit pricey.

Edit: The steam reviewers seems to agree on it's best to keep the original language with English subtitles as the dubbing is somewhat subpar (putting it nicely)

Edit2: and watch out for the horny fridge that tries to rape you at the start

 

 

There is also a controversy about this game, that it is funding the Russian Army efforts at Ukraine, as it is said, that Russian Government has stakes in the studio as well.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/atomic-heart-controversy-explained-mundfish-russia-ukraine-war/

For me good reason, to skip it, unless proven differently, and released on GOG.

[LadyCrimson]

Hogwart's - if you think most of the outdoors nights or night in general are a little too bright, you can play around with another Engine.ini line tweak:

[/script/engine.renderersettings]
r.TonemapperGamma=1.60

...where the 1.60 is anything you want. For me and the OLED + no fog I had to keep it pretty high (160-165) or crushed all black details (like faces/walls) etc. Others with fog on/non-OLED were saying something like 1.35 worked well for them.  1.70 seemed for me seemed to be almost the default night.
...at any rate, while unlit dungeons or covered forests were always plenty dark/black enough for me, I do like the open-sky nights being a bit darker at least, vs. almost day time with a heavy blue filter.

Edited March 2, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Gorth]

8 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

There is also a controversy about this game, that it is funding the Russian Army efforts at Ukraine, as it is said, that Russian Government has stakes in the studio as well.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/atomic-heart-controversy-explained-mundfish-russia-ukraine-war/

For me good reason, to skip it, unless proven differently, and released on GOG.

Good reasons... also, by the time this war is over it will most likely have come down in price too (or better yet, on GOG indeed)

It does look interesting though.

[Mamoulian War]

7 hours ago, Gorth said:

Good reasons... also, by the time this war is over it will most likely have come down in price too (or better yet, on GOG indeed)

It does look interesting though.

TBH some games made in Russia are indeed interesting. Pathfinder is also developed by Russian studio, thankfully, there is no such controversy around Owlcat Studios.

[kanisatha]

8 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

TBH some games made in Russia are indeed interesting. Pathfinder is also developed by Russian studio, thankfully, there is no such controversy around Owlcat Studios.

Isn't Owlcat now based in Cyprus?

[Mamoulian War]

48 minutes ago, kanisatha said:

Isn't Owlcat now based in Cyprus?

I think you are correct. But AFAIK the company was founded in Russia.

[Theonlygarby]

The Russian War efforts are doomed with the lack of video game industry support

[uuuhhii]

euro jank would be more enjoyable if they are less janky

[LadyCrimson]

When you finally finish all 95 Merlin Trials, see the steam achievement listed in Steam's client window. Then 10 minutes later you exit game and the PC reboots itself in the process. When you reboot/restart Steam, the  Achievement is gone/not registered anymore, but you've still completed all 95 in game, so ... FUBAR.  Although, maybe I could load an autosave if there's one before I did the last one.  (EDIT - yeah, that worked, Merlin's Beard registered again. then the game crashed on me again. ) 

Oh well. At least it shows up in the game itself. Pfft. There's maybe 4 or 5 unfinished in-game collection stuff left, like astronomy tables, 10 more side quests, etc. But game is crashing more often again. I think I'm going to call it quits until they put out 5 more patches or something.

Edited March 4, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[HoonDing]

Tolstoy was an Ukrainian. Dostoevsky was an Ukrainian. Gogol was an Ukrainian.

Literally everything good coming out of Russia is Ukrainian.

[Gorth]

3 hours ago, HoonDing said:

Tolstoy was an Ukrainian. Dostoevsky was an Ukrainian. Gogol was an Ukrainian.

Literally everything good coming out of Russia is Ukrainian.

On the same note, Beria and Stalin were both Georgians, what does that say about Georgia

[Hawke64]

Song of Farca. It's a point&click adventure/visual novel. Looks nice, runs well, though somehow linear. I've reached the point of applying everything to everything by the end of the second investigation. In retrospect, the solution does make sense, though.

Tried Arx Fatalis. Was successfully defeated by the first guard. For some reason, Steam Overlay wasn't working and the proposed on the forums solution did not help.

Tried Celeste. Looks and runs well, and the climbing mechanic is interesting. The map, on the other hand, seems rather complex.

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Hawke64 said:

Tried Celeste. Looks and runs well, and the climbing mechanic is interesting. The map, on the other hand, seems rather complex.

Levels in Celeste get pretty crazy, especially near the end. Love that game, but it requires some patience. 

[Keyrock]

On 3/4/2023 at 5:40 AM, Hawke64 said:

Tried Arx Fatalis. Was successfully defeated by the first guard. For some reason, Steam Overlay wasn't working and the proposed on the forums solution did not help.

Arx Fatalis is a game I have very fond memories of. I'm afraid to try to play it again all these years later because I fear it may not hold up. I'd rather leave those rose tinted glasses on.

Edit: I got the last broom upgrade in Hogwarts Legacy, I now have maximum broom. Honestly, it's a bit underwhelming. The first broom upgrade seemed to be the biggest, each one after that made barely any difference in max speed. I'll take it, though.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Keyrock

[Malcador]

Finished Chaos Gate Daemonhunters, all in all is not a bad game.  Just feels like a chore, although that may be due to my squad - I got a Chaplain near the end of the campaign - and maybe not having ideal builds, based off posts I see online where everyone's breezing through with a squad of killers. 

The boss fights are fun at least, I still despise that nurgling boss fight.  The fight with Mortarian is just too long

[HoonDing]

Arx Fatalis was literally unplayable for me at the time. It crashed every 10 minutes. I shelved it for Morrowind which managed to crash only every half hour.

[Keyrock]

I take back what I said about the last broom upgrade. While it doesn't increase max speed by a lot, it substantially decreases the rate at which I drain the turbo boost and also increases the height at which the turbo boost refills. With max broom upgrades I can effectively use turbo boost indefinitely, which is awesome.

[LadyCrimson]

Hogwart's ever since it made me do a small patch for some reason: CTD, CTD, CTD, CTD. Sometimes it takes me 5 tries before it allows me to get to/enter the main menu. Sometimes it plays for 30 minutes, then CTD when take a step forward or I sneeze at the screen. I've tried almost everything, including copying back a backup of the older version game folder, nvidia studio drivers, deleting shader caches (several ways/times), windowed vs. windowed fullscreen, different settings in case one is bugged etc.

Despite all that, and despite me saying each time I'm going to quit, since I have no life, I stubbornly keep trying, inbetween episodes of The Mentalist, and finished the astronomy tables, combat feats, and I think all that's left is 4 more Infamous Foes and total quests. I'm guessing for the side-quest collection I'm going to have to do the broom quests. I'm 39.5 and basically if you want max level you have to do EVERYTHING in the game. I wonder if that bugged Rescue Biscuit quest is going to prevent me from getting 100% re: quests completed/max clvl....

It probably sounds like I'm continually griping now, but if I didn't like the game overall I wouldn't still be trying to "complete" it ... right? It's just the technical problem rage. Or maybe I'm just a masochist.

Oh, I did turn on Stray again, last night, as a break. I needed cute kitty and the "meow button" to soothe my CTD-rage. It did not CTD once, so I got plenty of Meow. Meow.

[uuuhhii]

get a lot of game crash recently

maybe there some software update missing that are causing this

[BruceVC]

In Kingdom Come:D  the way they designed alchemy, reading, pickpocketing  and lockpicking is overall the best way I have ever seen these mechanics  done in any RPG. To go into more detail

• lockpicking: it really is challenging and fun every time, I have broken lots of lockpicks
• reading: it makes sense how you progress and learn skills. I find myself taking 2-3 days on most books
• alchemy: by far the best and most interesting skill to use. I love how each recipe requires different steps to create the necessary potion. Lots of fun
• pickpocketing: a unique system, I have never seen anything quite like it and its creates a real challenge every time you commit this crime

I hope other gaming companies take some tips from how Warhorse creates these activities  because they worthwhile