What are you Playing Now? - Games don't make you violent, lag does

[Hawke64]

1 hour ago, Wormerine said:

Ah, reminds me of the golden age of Zero Punctuation. Still somehow the most on point take on the trilogy I have encountered. Parable about pudding is a very valuable life lesson. 

 

Mostly agree, though the only issues I had with Farah in T2T (vs TSoT) were the lack fire support during gameplay and the kidnapping part. Liked the new VA a lot, though. The Prince's character development seemed to make sense in the context (especially that not all switches and arena-shaped spaces are traps, but one should think before pulling/entering them). For combat, stealth became a viable approach (which was incredibly ironic with one the Prince's lines in WW - "Where I came from, we face our opponents"). Going to replay T2T next.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

not sure which part are golden age

Those that I have most fond memories of.

I feel like ZP became very formulaic in recent years, and his jokes rarely make an interesting point anymore. I quite like his Extra Punctuation though.

Edited June 21, 2023 by Wormerine

[Hawke64]

Somewhere in the middle of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. A few things I've noticed only because I'm playing through the series sequentially - the sound design is better (VA, music, and random noises are separated mostly correctly), the targeting is much less forceful, and the boss battles are somehow more diverse (might be because of the QTEs, though - no giant griffons* this time). On the other hand, the graphics and animations are poorer and the gallery unlocks are not exactly immersive (the "Sand Credits").
*it was odd that the only boss faced during the infinite Sand period did not have any Sand-related gimmicks (like slowing down Mahasti in T2T).

Purchased The Last Hero of Nostalgia after playing the demo. It is a Souls-like with a very unfriendly narrator, similar to The Stanley Parable. The controls are comfortable and mostly rebindable and the progress is saved on exit. Will continue after finishing the trilogy.

[LadyCrimson]

More 7 Days to Die - well, all right, I'm pretty impressed with some of the new POI's. Just pure design, not whether they're fair or too hard or sleeper AI is borked. Just the design. And the RWG maps turn out a lot better road/terrain wise, I haven't noticed any terribad quirks. Add on my personal tweaks and it's shaping up to be pretty nice to casually roam/explore in.
That said, I still think the magazine for crafting/item skills went a bit overboard. I get that it helps slow down early progression/lengthens "early game", but the main annoyance I have with it is reading magazines (almost every category is 100 to max it out, which is a lot of RNG looting) gives you skills in a specific order. Example: read 10+ handgun magazines and first it's craft lvl 1 pipe pistol, all the way to lvl 5 pipe pistol, and only after that will reading magazines have learn how to craft a regular lvl1 pistol. You can't pick and choose what to learn to craft/not to craft, you have to learn it all, in order. Magazines in loot isn't rare by any means, but it's still a choice-annoyance. You're more likely to find lvl 6 (not craftable) gear before maxing out most such skills.

In other news, the dev's of Above Snakes announced their new game mode - they call it exploration, but I'd call it true sandbox, with some new features and highly requested QoL. I am more excited by this upcoming mode for this tiny indie game than any of these other giant games the 'net is a hubub about. I may end up liking this mode more - especially for replayability/sandbox - than the original quest-progression version.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1589120/announcements/detail/3653030337001095558

Edited June 22, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Hawke64]

Finished Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. It is as good as can be expected, though the technical quality of the Sands of Time was higher. I think the boss battle against the twins was bugged (the Eye of the Storm ability turned off after one hit), I fell ~12 times on the jumping plate in the Middle Tower (it did not throw me far enough to reach the dagger-holding point), and there are quite a few differences between the pre-rendered cut-scenes and in-game graphics. Mixed feelings about the idea of accepting fixable mistakes*. The total playtime is around 5 hours, including 20-30 minutes away from keyboard.
*

Spoiler

I guess, Kaileena's low opinion of dead civilians, as long as it got her free, was understandable, the Prince's regret of trying to avoid dying in Warrior's Within or calling correcting own errors "childish" was odd. But overall, it was an adequate conclusion and finishing it with the exact same words spoken to the same person as in The Sands of Time was rather poetic.

 

[Tale]

Played too much Diablo which put me on an ARPG kick. 4 has a good story, but left me unhappy with my character in terms of power fantasy or just interesting stuff in my build. 3 flips those around and is just braindead easy when doing a campaign run.

Last Epoch tries on the story and I'm not comfortable saying it succeeds, but it does manage some interesting builds and power fantasy.

I think I need to put all of these to bed for a while. Too much running between places while clicking on hordes of enemies.

[Bartimaeus]

planet of lana

cheat engine's speedhack doesn't work on this game for reason, so it got uninstalled pretty promptly after I had to slowly crouch walk under something for the umpteenth time in the intro

billiam shakesman once said that brevity is the soul of wit, which is just a fancy way of saying QUIT WASTING MY TIME

also, why can't 2d platformers that are trying to be pretty have gameplay just a little closer to Donkey Kong Country and a little farther away from clunky walkathon Limbo, it'd do them a whole lot of good to have some kind of gameplay that isn't only "hold right" and "stop holding right until you can hold right again"

Edited June 24, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Hawke64]

On 6/24/2023 at 5:08 PM, Bartimaeus said:

planet of lana

cheat engine's speedhack doesn't work on this game for reason, so it got uninstalled pretty promptly after I had to slowly crouch walk under something for the umpteenth time in the intro

billiam shakesman once said that brevity is the soul of wit, which is just a fancy way of saying QUIT WASTING MY TIME

also, why can't 2d platformers that are trying to be pretty have gameplay just a little closer to Donkey Kong Country and a little farther away from clunky walkathon Limbo, it'd do them a whole lot of good to have some kind of gameplay that isn't only "hold right" and "stop holding right until you can hold right again"

I think that the puzzle or stealth elements don't work well with more active action platforming. E.g. Guacamelee is an excellent platformer/metroidvania, but has no puzzles or stealth. Same for Celeste (the game is very impressive, but I don't think I would be able to play it without the Assist Mode).

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia. It is a purposefully junky Souls-like. Some systems are simpler, some are more intricate. The location design feels a bit linear (the path forward, a dead end, a shortcut), but nice otherwise - there are reasons to return to the previously visited areas, but I have not unlocked the fast travel system yet (if it is present in the game). The second boss battle was ridiculous (might have something to do with me trying to use a new sword and repeatedly misjudging the attack range) - several very different stages, including a group, and the save point was far.
Edit. Reached the Wilds (woods). The place is a labyrinth and it is connected to the previously-visited areas.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Hawke64

[Malcador]

Diablo 4 has some fun side quest chains, rather enjoyed the ones helping a man living with a demon in him to collect things, the demon being happy to inhabit him for simple pleasures humans have.  Slowly renown grinding though the regions as well. 

Also ran into the Butcher today, managed to wear him down, Flurry Rogue is pretty tanky

[bugarup]

FInished Bioshock Infinite. Visually, very pretty. Thematically, incoherent mess where creators use that gimmick of theirs as banal "a wizard did it" because nobody told them that no plot twist is better than stupid plot twist. 

Did the DLCs too, they didn't make much sense either, also made exaggerated caricatures out of already not exactly subtle original Bioshock's characters. Were surprisingly bleak and dark though, which was nice, and second one reminded me I still have DIshonored 2 to play, which was also nice. 

Now off to do Minerva's Den from Bioshock 2 and I am so glad to be able to save whenever I want to and not when the bloody game allows me to. 

[majestic]

Speaking of Diablo 4, while Blizzard introduced a debuff on overlevelled players in PVP areas, it does not work properly. The logical conclusion: high level players ganking lowbies on lower difficulties. For anyone who does not know, PVP in D4 consists of playing in a PVP area, collecting Seeds of Hatred that are purified into Red Dust (the PVP currency) in an event that is broadcast through the zone and marked on the map.

Just spent an hour protecting others from gankers. The only problem is that years of playing ARPGs conditioned players to click on anything with a red health bar, so there was some unfortunate collateral damage. I doubt it is ever not going to be funny to see Bully McAssface explode, spilling all their ill gotten seeds on the ground.

[InsaneCommander]

Got a little carried away with exploring in Gedonia and completely forgot about the main story. I increased my reputation with the Mage Academy, visited the main city, became the new champion of the arena and got some pretty good equipment. Unfortunately, I had to let the dog go to hire the warrior companion and deal with the most difficult enemies so far: the rats in the sewer.

[majestic]

39 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Got a little carried away with exploring in Gedonia and completely forgot about the main story. I increased my reputation with the Mage Academy, visited the main city, became the new champion of the arena and got some pretty good equipment. Unfortunately, I had to let the dog go to hire the warrior companion and deal with the most difficult enemies so far: the rats in the sewer.

Hey, my Gedonia character is at maximum level, kills even the most frightening enemies in seconds and has still yet to complete the main quest in the second zone.

[InsaneCommander]

57 minutes ago, majestic said:

Hey, my Gedonia character is at maximum level, kills even the most frightening enemies in seconds and has still yet to complete the main quest in the second zone.

Well, it doesn't help that the story npc just disappears instead of escorting you as she was supposed to do.

[Lorfean]

Been playing Diablo IV since its regular launch (not early access) and I'm still having a blast. I finished the campaign a few days ago and IMO it's easily the best thing Blizzard has put out in years in terms of story, themes, atmosphere and world-building. In terms of gameplay I really like that they went open world but stuck to the classic, fixed camera angle, and the seemless in-game cinematics where you can see your chr in full detail are great for immersion. Itemization is good -- there's a lot of flexibility there -- and the other progression systems are well-thought through and make sense. Haven't gotten into the end-game much yet, but that looks promising too... But I'd say I got my money's worth with the campaign alone. Really good stuff.

[BruceVC]

23 hours ago, bugarup said:

FInished Bioshock Infinite. Visually, very pretty. Thematically, incoherent mess where creators use that gimmick of theirs as banal "a wizard did it" because nobody told them that no plot twist is better than stupid plot twist. 

Did the DLCs too, they didn't make much sense either, also made exaggerated caricatures out of already not exactly subtle original Bioshock's characters. Were surprisingly bleak and dark though, which was nice, and second one reminded me I still have DIshonored 2 to play, which was also nice. 

Now off to do Minerva's Den from Bioshock 2 and I am so glad to be able to save whenever I want to and not when the bloody game allows me to. 

I enjoyed Bioshock Infinite, I liked the dystopian world and the overall narrative but I found parts of it confusing. When I finished it I did a narrative summary and then it made sense 

[BruceVC]

I about 90 hours into DFU and Im having an absolute blast, its one of the best RPG I have ever played because of the vastness of the game world and the myriad of choices and things to do

I have completed about 10-12 dungeons and I now have a good strategy to complete quests in dungeons, I have created my own Dungeoneers Survival Guide which includes the following " must have " items to ensure success during long explorations underground

• recall spell cast at the entrance for quick exit and to access my wagon and go back into the dungeon
• extra oil for my lamp
• repair tools for various items like my sword and camping kit
• landmark journal so I can create specific teleport points
• healing and cure potions in case my magic runs out
• Locator Device : this can be used when you have explored a certain percentage of the dungeon and it creates a small dot on the HUD which shows you where your target is in a general direction. I have only used them twice and its handy when you very frustrated after seemingly exploring the whole dungeon but still cant find the target...and then it turns out you missed a secret door. Its a good last resort to help you without making it too easy

I have done loads of fun quests like the Wild Hunt which was about finding a werewolf in 6 hours and then another one where I was teleported into the dungeon to kill someone and had to find my way out and then a prostitute was cursed by witches and I had to break the curse. But the quests are endless and vary from simple fetch or delivery to the complex so I never get bored

I have to keep reminding myself to also go on the main quests which Im taking very slow and will focus on it once I start getting bored with the side quests

Im a battlemage and I joined the Mages Guild and I love the various services like creating spells and magic items, it lets you become strategic about what effects and magic you decide to use

But a fantastic game, further updates to follow 

[majestic]

On 6/26/2023 at 2:54 AM, Malcador said:

Also ran into the Butcher today, managed to wear him down, Flurry Rogue is pretty tanky

That usually ends up being a death sentence for me - he generally only spawns whenever I run nightmare dungeons and enemies are 15+ levels higher. Never saw him in a regular dungeon. Sigh.

[MrBrown]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendos-next-console-shareholders-ask-about-backwards-compatibility-and-more/

[Hawke64]

Finished The Last Hero of Nostalgaia (pronounced as Nostal-GA-ia). It is an action-adventure/Souls-like. The world is dying and only the main character can save it. The controls are rebindable, the progress is saved on exit. Can't exactly recommend or not recommend, thus not posting it on Steam - the combat is clunky and the backtracking is uncomfortable, but the location design is memorable and the weapon upgrade system is unique. Though, I had to edit the save file to enable fast travel (after trying to backtrack through the woods) and to fix a failed side quest (the time limit and the need to backtrack were not clear).
Review:

Spoiler

The story is narratively coherent, being both a satire and a love letter to gaming. Though, showing degradation via older visual styles is expressive, it also implies that more polygons are equal to quality. While the game refers to some of the industry developments, such as the rise of MMO RPG, it does not seem to address the crunch and outsourcing it to poorer countries, the loot boxes and gambling, and the intrusive DRM.

The combat reminds of the game’s primarily technical inspiration, but feels clunky in all aspects, as well as the movement. The hitboxes for some foes and weapons are odd, while the targeting/tracking is inconsistent - sometimes a boss goes straight past, sometimes in the same combo they do a 180-degree turn. Enemy AI and pathfinding are impressive - they can surround, attack from different directions, and hide (one specific type), but they also can hit through walls. The diversity of the opponents is adequate - most are specific to one region, some can be encountered throughout the world. The difficulty is mostly reasonable, with few points where the damage output, the attack speed, and the density of the encounters seem too high (the werewolves). Jumping is not possible.

The bosses have a wide range of attack patterns and abilities, with one of them including 3 stages, but overall almost all  are too sturdy and heavy-hitting. Also, there are too few (5 mandatory, 1 repeated, 1 arena battle, 1 optional) of them and almost all are humanoids. It is possible to have an NPC assist with the battles, trivialising them, providing the respective NPC quest line has been progressed.

The location design is distinct and varied, from visuals to gameplay interactions - there are forests shrouded in deadly fog and dungeons filled with traps, mines and castles. While there are unlockable shortcuts, the lack of a built-in fast travel system and the general difficulty of navigation make backtracking extremely uncomfortable, but it is mostly unnecessary (3 times unavoidably during the main quest), except for restoring relics and side quests, including the optional bosses. New traversal abilities are added as the story progresses and, while their utilisation is minimal, add more depth to the exploration.

The Remembering aspect of the weapon upgrade system is unique and consists of finding a specific location the relic references and selecting “Remember" from the inventory screen, but if a favoured weapon has its memory location far or it is hard to determine, it makes it less powerful than the Remembered alternative. Alternatively, the weapon can be Unburdened - the same increase of the base stats, but the lore and special abilities are stripped. Another way to upgrade is more typical - linear damage increase and branching for different attribute scaling. This requires to unlock smithing firstly, then to find anvils scattered around the world to unlock higher upgrade tiers. Additionally, Remembering unlocks character-specific, Insight, bonuses, such as increased health or stamina regeneration.   

There are several optional NPC quest lines progressing alongside the main story, which can also break if not done in the correct order before moving on with the main quest. Additionally, one of them requires backtracking quite far back, which is not clear from the NPC dialogues, and unlocks 2 optional boss battles.

As for the accessibility options, the controls are rebindable, 5-button mice supported, sprinting can be a toggle, the subtitles are available and readable, though not adjustable. The game saves the exact position on exit.

There have been very few bugs encountered an area didn't load once, an NPC didn't spawn once (the Old Man), foes regularly hit through walls.

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by Hawke64

[melkathi]

Saints Row

The Dustmoot, the LARP event you get roped into by one of the NPC's is fun.

The concept is the event is played across the whole city and virtually everyone except the player character knows about it, is super excited, and participates. So if you use larp weapons outside the missions, anyone you meet will still get the rper overacting death animation, possibly with a line like "the light leaves my eyes..."

I like the concept of the swat team returning to the police station and saying "sorry, we couldn't arrest them, they killed our dustmoot characters".

[InsaneCommander]

Gedonia. Continued the main story and it's really bad. One of the quests was going to a camp full of specialists to translate some runes, just to be sent back to the npc that sent me there since said npc is the only one who can translate the runes.

I also learned how to fly, which really helps when travelling, spent a few points in Dark Magic to summon skeletons and discovered a temple and a frontier region where the enemies are actually strong.

[Sarex]

DMC5. Trying to beat the prologue boss.

[Mamoulian War]

Booted up Tales of Arise after 3 months of break due to work and Assetto Corsa league. Before I will be able to start the post-game content, I have to finish some loose ends for which I was low level before defeating the last boss. One of them was Grand Gnome super boss, which have been defeated today  

[Wormerine]

Finished Planet of Lana - I didn't care much for this one. It was very pretty, and I loved the asthetic callbacks to Another World, but it felt flat to me - it didn't flow for me very well, most puzzles felt more like padding, and the game wasn't able to pull off a cool setpiece without reverting to a QTA.

Started Gears of War5 - probably won't finish it a long time, as I am heading away from my PC for the next months, and by the time it will be Baldur's Gate3 time, but it looks like a decent spinoff of a tactics game they did a while back.