What are you Playing Now? - the man sez Video games are bad for you - fight the man!

[Hawke64]

Currently playing Tunic. The exploration is amazing (unironically) - I managed to enter a late-game area from the wrong side and spent an hour having my HP drained (I dropped the difficulty after 4 attempts due to the checkpoint in the area not working; it did not make it obvious for me that something was off). It was a rather interesting experience, nonetheless. I also love the manual-styled in-game manual. The map, fortunately, tracks the location, though even using the landmarks is easy.

Tried the open alpha test of Shadow of the Road (published by Owlcat). It is a tactical game in the steampunk Japanese setting. The tutorial battle was as easy as it could be. The dialogues required responding as both pre-made party members (like in DOS1, if it had fixed characters) and had quite a few Japanese words untranslated, such as "foreigner" or "cup". There were some notifications, such as "MC1 was pushed towards X path" and "Relationship between MC1 and MC2 improved", but I am unsure what exactly it means in the long term (only the ending or some stat changes or quest availability). There also was a timed choice at the end. Given the checkpoint-based saving system, I found it rather unpleasant. 

In the second area, a forest with an estate, my GPU hit 86C and I closed the game with Alt+F4. There were no graphical settings, except the resolution, so nothing to drop (there was also some sort of dirt filter on the screen, which was not possible to disable). The cut-scenes were a mix of animated slides with in-engine scenes (think Rogue Trader). The VA is Japanese only, which was very unfortunate, considering the size of the text (not impossible to read, but uncomfortable). The story is closer to fantasy than anything too historical, thouth the god-descending emperor prosecuting the Shinto followers was somewhat odd to see. The tree-hopping ninjas in black pajamas with swords on their backs confirmed the high fantasy setting.

I am unlikely to purchase, but the playtest is there and free to participate. Another consideration in regard to Owlcat: 

 

[melkathi]

Tried Shadow of the Road as well.

Overall enjoyable though the Alpha shows. The UI needs work. It seems all dialogues are timed, similar to Alpha Protocol.

[MrBrown]

Tried Gothic 1 remake demo. A couple of things in the UI are really annoying:

- No pause in menus, so have to save far away from monsters.

- Subtitles appear at the same speed as spoken dialogue, so you actually have to listen to the bloody thing to know what's being said.

Can't see myself playing the full game if they at least don't fix the latter one. The first one I could maybe deal with, if the rest of the game is really good.

[Theonlygarby]

2 hours ago, MrBrown said:

- Subtitles appear at the same speed as spoken dialogue, so you actually have to listen to the bloody thing to know what's being said.

That sounds terrible

[Malcador]

Realized if you bail in missions in Raptor you get to keep loot. So repeatedly grinding missions to get loot, got the best weapon in the game.  For some reason this reminds me of playing Diablo 2.  20 waves out of 27 done. Seems the version I have (the one from GOG you can't get anymore) is crippled with movement, too.  

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

Realized if you bail in missions in Raptor you get to keep loot. So repeatedly grinding missions to get loot, got the best weapon in the game.  For some reason this reminds me of playing Diablo 2.  20 waves out of 27 done. Seems the version I have (the one from GOG you can't get anymore) is crippled with movement, too.  

I have very fond memories of playing Raptor: Call of the Shadows, but it's been 30 years, how has the gameplay nodaways? Guess there's not overly much you can do with shoot-em-ups, controls-wise, so it probably still plays well enough. Not sure I want to replay it, it was pretty tough to beat even before 30 years of reflex and response time degredation.  

[Malcador]

5 hours ago, majestic said:

I have very fond memories of playing Raptor: Call of the Shadows, but it's been 30 years, how has the gameplay nodaways? Guess there's not overly much you can do with shoot-em-ups, controls-wise, so it probably still plays well enough. Not sure I want to replay it, it was pretty tough to beat even before 30 years of reflex and response time degredation.  

Gameplay is ok, I am mindlessly causing things to explode. The boss fights require me to tank damage as I am old now.  Takes me back where Ctrl is the fire button by default. Why Right Alt is the weapons toggle by default is odd (funny thing I often forget the right Alt and Ctrl exist)

[BruceVC]

I completed Arcanum after about 45 hours, its definitely worth playing as a CRPG

Overall its gets a solid 70/100 on the globally followed " BruceVC game rating system "

Things I enjoyed and loved about it
 

• lots of interesting side quests
• good map system of how you need to find things around quest locations
• really humorous and quirky Easter Egg developments like the Stillwater Giant and Virgils story
• complex customization around different builds
• different ways to complete quests, the main narrative is clearly not linear and you can be good or evil. I followed the good path
• Worthwhile main narrative with several twists and turns around who is really the bad guy

The combat is not a highlight, I ended up just attacking with my main character in almost all battles. I only used spells a few times and that was just to disarm tough opponents like the Cursed Paladin and some healing. So overall combat doesnt require much strategy or thinking

But still the combat shortfalls dont detract much from the overall fun experience of the game 

[Malcador]

And finished Raptor.  Kind of easy with the best weapon, but that makes sense.  I guess on to Old World.

[Theonlygarby]

I beat KCD2.  Not sure how I feel about it to be honest.  Right now I'm a lot less interested  in a sequel than I was after the first game.

 

I did enjoy the game.   Just very odd pacing.   Not sure i will do another full playthrough.  Kind of hope warhorse make a non KCD for their next game

[Tale]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

It's weird. Being as old as I am and getting to the end of a game and hesitating because I didn't want it to end. Seeing something from my childhood in new lights and crying at it all over again.

I'm so used to seeing things from my youth being done a disservice. I won't say Rebirth is perfect, I won't even say it's as good as the original. But it's still damned good. The team understood the assignment when they made this. It is worthy of standing alongside the media that I love.

That final boss fight was overdone as hell, though. How many phases did it need?

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

I beat KCD2.  Not sure how I feel about it to be honest.  Right now I'm a lot less interested  in a sequel than I was after the first game.

 

I did enjoy the game.   Just very odd pacing.   Not sure i will do another full playthrough.  Kind of hope warhorse make a non KCD for their next game

What do you mean by " not sure how I feel about it "?

 

What didnt you like about it, can you provide details?

[Theonlygarby]

9 hours ago, BruceVC said:

What do you mean by " not sure how I feel about it "?

 

What didnt you like about it, can you provide details?

The first map is almost perfect.  It ends at a very satisfying place. 

Most of my problems are with the kuttenberg map.  

It starts with playing as father godwin.  All the father Godwin sections feel unnecessary and mess with the flow of the game.  Really feels like they could have just been cinematics.  This includes playing the final siege 3 times as Godwin.  Once at the start, once midway, and then a final time during the actual siege.

This might be a little my fault for not role-playing enough, but I felt very disconnected from Henry once arriving in kuttenberg.  How it might be my fault is that I accepted every side quest.  Mostly all of the side quests are "go steal this thing".  If you were playing as an honorable Henry it feels like you would be locked out of 3/4 of the side quests.  Sneaking and stealing feel unavoidable,  but maybe it is avoidable and I just didn't avoid well enough.

Finally the ending of the game felt incredibly unsatisfying.  There are some plot points left open, but it doesn't seem like enough to make a full game around them.  Maybe they could do them in DLC, but then you aren't getting "the real ending" without buying DLC.

KCD1s ending was anticlimactic but had me excited for a sequel.  KCD2 ending just feels empty.  Maybe that's on purpose, the pointlessness of war and all that.  Maybe it's to do with it being somewhat historical, so they can't have you doing anything that rewrites history.

My mind might change as time goes by.  While I reflect on the story.  This is just how I feel on completion of the game.