What are you playing right now?

[Fenixp]

Finished Layers of Fear, in a manner. It was a nice walking simulator, there actually were decision-making points and some extremely easy puzzles so that's neat. It's basically 'Explore creepy mansion and things will progressively get more ****ed up as you uncover teeeerrrible stoooryyy!' kind of thing. There are 3 endings to the game, but considering how static it is, I'm not finishing it again. The game's extremely fixated on rats, so um... That's a thing (and now I understand how people feel when they get me talking about rats), I also feel like I wasn't supposed to say "Look at the little guys go!" when rats were scurrying about the house.

 

Incidentally, the game insists on using extremely high-pitched sounds for some of its bits, making my actual rats leave their homes and investigate what the hell's that all about. They got bored when the sound ended so I have another sock they decided to chew through, little bastards (See? I'm doing it again.)

 

I really liked how it played about with perspective and level architecture - using impossible angles, constantly breaking laws of physics and changing layout of surrounding rooms or even changing the room itself to unnerve the player. I also really like how many recurring paintings in the game slowly evolved and changed as the main protagonist's psychological state progressively deteriorated, really cool. I do rather enjoy mind games like that and Layers of Fear put a lot of effort into constantly throwing something new at me, so that's really nice.

 

What's not nice is that it's quite obvious budget for the game was limited, and it takes away some of the experience when you're asking yourself "Wait, so is this room one I have been in before or are these assets just reused again?"

 

I really enjoyed it for a game I got with a monthly bundle, but personally, given extremely limited gameplay it offers, I'd not have dropped more than 5 bucks on it. Really glad I played it tho.

[SonicMage117]

I still remember listening to Marilyn Mansons Holy Wood while trashing through the hordes. Serious Sam is quite good at what it does. Are there any (newer) similar games anyway?

I used to love Serious Sam, I guess I've gotten tired of the horde-FPS genre. However, Painkiller series comes to mind.... Also the new Shadow Warrior games.

[SonicMage117]

Last night I got about 5 hours of gaming, which is alot for me. I put some time in Brigador, Not A Hero and Neon Chrome. All great indie titles which I should be playing more. Unfortunately... life happens

[Katphood]

All the "bad" Yooka-Laylee reviews actually convinced me to preorder the game 2 days before launch...   

 

EDIT: You know what? I'm going digital because I want to make sure Playtonic gets my money. 

Edited April 9, 2017 by Katphood

[SonicMage117]

All the "bad" Yooka-Laylee reviews actually convinced me to preorder the game 2 days before launch...   

 

EDIT: You know what? I'm going digital because I want to make sure Playtonic gets my money. 

I know exactly what you mean, whenever people badmouth a game on the Steam forums saying something like "Ewwww... Denuvo! Don't buy unless you're stupid" or "This game is gonna be bad... no buy", it makes me actually go and purchase it. It's that beautiful "Paris Hilton" effect thing.... I can honestly say that every time I've decided to do that, the haters were proven wrong.

[Katphood]

My problem with most reviews regarding Yooka-Laylee is when the reviewers claim something belongs to the past and it is outdated. That might be true about some of the game mechanics but when it comes to music/gameplay/character voices/Jokes/enemy design it all becomes a matter of opinion. This game is aiming to be something similar to Banjoo Kazooie and its sequel and while it doesn't deliver on everything it still makes a pretty decent job at capturing that vibe. It is also worth noting that most reviews came before a patch which Playtonic released just days after the Xbox One release. It will be available for PS4 and PC at launch and it should fix a ton of issues. The game deserves a little better.

Edited April 9, 2017 by Katphood

[Bartimaeus]

I know exactly what you mean, whenever people badmouth a game on the Steam forums saying something like "Ewwww... Denuvo! Don't buy unless you're stupid" or "This game is gonna be bad... no buy", it makes me actually go and purchase it. It's that beautiful "Paris Hilton" effect thing.... I can honestly say that every time I've decided to do that, the haters were proven wrong.

 

I believe they call that being a contrarian.

 

Personally, I'm fairly nonplussed about the reviews myself, but for different reasons: I still play BK/BT once every few years, and so I'm not particularly bothered if the game is more or less identical to them. Those camera and character issues, on the other hand, may still be issues that paint my view of the game, however...

Edited April 9, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[SonicMage117]

I played about 30 minutes of Rise Of The Tomb Raider tonight, I forgot how good the game is. It's always nice when sequels turn out better than the first

[Keyrock]

Shroud of the Avatar had a free trial weekend so I tried a bit of that.  It's better than I feared and worse than I hoped.  I can get past 2006-level graphics and general jank of the game, especially since it's still technically "pre-alpha".  What kills me is the awkward controls and incredibly boring MMO-esque combat ( I REALLY hate hold down a mouse button to be able to turn your field of view type control schemes, I'd much rather have a toggle).  To be honest, there are MMOs that have much better combat than this, like TERA.  There are positives, though.  I like the freedom in how to build your character, the lack of hand holding, and the ability to play offline, online single-player, or online multiplayer, or online just with friends.  You can switch between online/offline modes whenever you like, though I'm not sure how the game would handle things like player housing in those instances.

 

Anyway, the bit that I played didn't exactly inspire me, but it didn't make me write the game off completely either.  Hopefully they do another free trial weekend closer to full release, assuming that ever happens.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Keyrock

[Katphood]

@Keyrock How is Thimbleweed Park treating you? 

 

Is it bad, good or Ron Gilbert good?!

[melkathi]

Judging by the many screenshots, the rat seems to enjoy it quite a bit. He isn't known for hate/love screenshots

[Keyrock]

@Keyrock How is Thimbleweed Park treating you?

 

Is it bad, good or Ron Gilbert good?!

It's Ron Gilbert good. :D

[Katphood]

Great stuff. I'll definitely get it once I am done with Yooka-Laylee. Last good Ron Gilbert game I played was On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness.

[Fenixp]

Got my salary, which essentially means "Buy Nier: Automata". Finished it in 15 minutes. That was a good ending.

 

Anyway, the combat feels great, the game doesn't give a **** about gamer sensibilities and just goes and does whatever the hell it feels like. This is amazing. A character commented on me enabling controller vibration.

[Tale]

I love Nier: Automata so much. I played it three games ago and still can't stop thinking about it.

[Majek]

I finally have some gaming time and i'm playing Nier Automata as well. I tried to play nioh, then Dark Souls 3 but it's Nier that i don't get tired of after 15 minutes. :D

 

Still getting used to most of it. Like retrieving bodies of other players just gives you temporary boost and so on. And i want more weapons, but then again i've only just entered the desert. xD edit: i'm not buying those 2 from the camp ... i want to find some on the ground :D

Edited April 11, 2017 by Majek

[redneckdevil]

Still enjoying ESO. I do horribly in dungeons but questing I have a lot of fun. It's going to take me forever to learn all the different armor enchantments but it's a time sink.

Kids are up for the weekend and been playing Minecraft with my daughter, watching her and my son play FNAF, learning the ropes with my son on ark survival on PS4, and tonight gonna teach my oldest daughter to play resident evil 7. Youngest son doesn't play games yet (severe autistic) but he enjoys watching my son play plants vs zombies.

I've taken a back seat on my games since they visiting for spring break but everyone's having fun.

[Malcador]

Cosmonautica. So far is worth the $2 I paid.

[Katphood]

Yooka-Laylee just finished downloading. So excited to play this!    *vanishes*

Edited April 11, 2017 by Katphood

[melkathi]

Cosmonautica. So far is worth the $2 I paid.

 

Did they fix the bug where if a crew-member wearing shorts went to a shower, when they would hang their clothes, they'd actually hang their legs?

[Malcador]

Hah.  I kind of hope they didn't.  I will play some more, have been distracted by grinding in WoW (doesn't count as playing - that's a job )

[Tale]

Persona 5

 

It's just like 3 and 4 before it really. I feel like I've played it already. But since 3 and 4 were so great, it's not a bad thing.

[melkathi]

Hah.  I kind of hope they didn't.  I will play some more, have been distracted by grinding in WoW (doesn't count as playing - that's a job )

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=317524419

[Mamoulian War]

And again Tales of Xillia 2. I have reached the "Bad Ending". Took me almost 66 hours and with it, I have got the Chromatus Control trophy, for not using the transformation skill after Chapter 13.

 

Only 3 more Trophies to go, 2 of them are for different endings and one to get to maximum level, and then I'll have another Japanese Platinum

 

One of the endings, which I still miss are to beat special Colosseum boss you need to fulfill some hard to do prerequisites for this fight to happen. I was able to meet them in my first playthrough, but I was unable to beat the superboss

[Keyrock]

Yooka-Laylee released today.  So far, so good.  The game looks great, just like a N64 game but with much better graphics.  It sound and feels like a N64 game too.  That's exactly what I was hoping for.  Only time will tell if the gameplay and level design hold up over the course of the game.