What are you playing right now?

[Mamoulian War]

My first playthrough is always blind. I love surprises :-D my second playthrough is always NG+, even if I manage to screw up little bit my blind build :-P More fun that way for me :-P

[Tale]

I had to drop Prey from Hard to Normal. I wanted to have to watch my resources, not savescum every fight. And the gameplay still isn't quite hooking me. It's almost too jumpy to be a great action game, but with way too many fights for the kind of tension I want from horror.

 

But at least I have guns now. So that's good.

 

I'm getting into God Eater Resurrection more. It's just kind of nice to beat up on monsters. There's not much else to say about it.

[Fenixp]

with way too many fights for the kind of tension I want from horror.

This is not directed at you specifically, Tale, but I'm seeing this quite often - people say Prey needs more tension to be a horror game. But it's never been marketed or sold as a horror game and, well, it's not trying to be one. It's trying to be a sci-fi thriller with some horror elements, which is an end that I find it achieving quite splendidly - nonetheless, going into the experience expecting a horror game can only lead to a disappointment.

 

As for combat, it's been my biggest sticky point with the game - always felt a bit too gimmicky for my taste, and still does. Altho it's a fair bit easier and more manageable on second playthrough when I have actually learned to make proper use of environmental hazards and setting up traps. What did hook me was exploration, atmosphere and, eventually, the storyline and strange dynamic the game has going for it (which only reveals itself later on)

[Hurlshort]

I let the turrets do my fighting for me in Prey. I also realized that there is no reason not to just run away most of the time.

[Tale]

I'm saying it's not particularly doing action or horror well. I'm not really sure what it's trying to do. And thriller just doesn't fit by my definition of thriller. I'm with you on the story being compelling, that's the only thing that gets me to come back right now.

 

Basically every room I enter at this point, I just know I'm going to be fighting against 2+ mimics. And they're going to give up pretending to be an object almost the moment I enter the room. So I'm not sure what the point was.

 

The item mimic, however, that was pretty neat. That got a good jump out of me. And one mimic that waited until I left a room, even though I wrenched it on my way in. That had to be scripted.

[Fenixp]

I'm not really sure what it's trying to do.

It's trying to take the 'Space station gone wrong' trope and craft an almost hard sci-fi game around it - taking Arkane's biggest strength (level design and environmental storytelling) and just create a game around it. It's neither really focused on action (which is cubersome on purpose, which is why I wish the game did end up getting more fleshed out stealth mechanics) albeit it's a big part of it - which I'm sure was a decision made to not bore mainstream audience - nor focused on horror as full-on horror usually requires steering off the 'realistic' path.

 

And Talos I is possibly the most realistic portrayal of a space station I've ever seen in a game (not that big of an achievement considering the competition, admittedly - so there's obviously still crap like artificial gravity). I just love the tiny details it's filled with - like one of the first information you gain about the station being that it used to be a much smaller structure built by Russians called "Kletka" and, as you explore deeper into station's infrastructure, you can see how construction styles change and even glimpse "Kletka" written in Russian on some of the wall plating. Or, from a completely different angle, find a tucked-away corner in 0-G with flower pedals and a bottle of wine floating through the air, with a message saying "We should not open wine in 0G next time" pinned to the wall, just to find a computer belonging to a female employee surrounded by flowers in a nearby location.

 

I love exploring virtual worlds, and Prey has given me one I can return to repeatedly and find something new every time. I just wish the shooting was also up to par.

[SonicMage117]

I'm saying it's not particularly doing action or horror well. I'm not really sure what it's trying to do. And thriller just doesn't fit by my definition of thriller. I'm with you on the story being compelling, that's the only thing that gets me to come back right now.

 

Basically every room I enter at this point, I just know I'm going to be fighting against 2+ mimics. And they're going to give up pretending to be an object almost the moment I enter the room. So I'm not sure what the point was.

 

The item mimic, however, that was pretty neat. That got a good jump out of me. And one mimic that waited until I left a room, even though I wrenched it on my way in. That had to be scripted.

How is the combat? The combat itself should probably be the most important thing of the game since you're in combat for the majority of the time. Is it good or bad?

[Hurlshort]

You are not in combat the majority of the time in Prey.

[SonicMage117]

You are not in combat the majority of the time in Prey.

Strange... All I hear is people saying how every room has enemies spawned. Is it walking simulator peppered with combat?

[Hurlshort]

There are a lot of ways you can play the game. The more stuff you kill, the more aggressive the aliens get, so I suppose you could MAKE the game all about combat. But I found it was better to just be careful and avoid combat when possible. It's a great exploration game to me. I loved the environmental storytelling.

[Keyrock]

The new Hitman really is the best one since Blood Money. I've been loving the missions. So many choices! Today I massaged a banker to death and killed a general as the prisoner he was interrogating.  

 

 

Agreed, the game is fantastic.  I've been playing the game for over 90 hours now and I continue to find new and different approaches to missions.  Virtually every obstacle has multiple methods to overcome it and there are so many different fun creative kills you can execute.  I suspect I have at least 40 or 50 hours of fun left before I grow tired of this game.

[Malcador]

Sounds like it's worth getting next time it's on sale

[Raithe]

I think my trouble with the new Hitman was getting it when it was being released months apart. On a gaming level, the design is excellent. Large maps, so many ways to complete the missions.  But then they had barely any story to hang it all together during the first three episodes released. And after the 7th or so elusive target it was "eh, I've done these maps a bunch of times already and again, there's no real story to enjoy just the pure gaming of it."

 

Then having to wait 3 months for the next section to be released...

[marelooke]

There are a lot of ways you can play the game. The more stuff you kill, the more aggressive the aliens get, ...

 

Wait? What? In what way do they become "more aggressive"? Aren't they always hostile anyway?

 

You are not in combat the majority of the time in Prey.

 

Well, enemies don't usually respawn in the "regular" sense, appears to be based on your actions (eg. pushing the plot forward is a surefire way to have a bunch of new enemies waiting...everywhere), so murdering everything gives some measure of peace, for a while. Some locations do seem too have enemies spawn regularly on entering though (workshop, I think?)

[Mamoulian War]

Finally finished my way to the Platinum Trophy in Tales of Xillia 2! It took me little bit more than 302 hours, more than double the time for Tales of Xillia 1 Platinum, but 30 hours less than Tales of Graces f Platinum

 

The Last trophy, which I was missing was the cameo coliseum fight Trophy for Cameo Ending, where

instead of my group, Elle and the world was rescued by party made of characters from Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Destiny Cress, Stahn, Rutee and Mint.

 

 

Despite getting to level 200 was little bit longer than expected, I have really had a lot of fun doing various task for getting some of the harder trophies, but now I am just without an idea, what game to play next. I am still missing few trophies in Project CARS GOTY, but they are the most grindy one, and I am kind of to tired of racing in last few months :/

 

Well, one of the options would be go for the Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age, because it was really long time, when I have played it last time, but there are still some PS3 games, in which I really want to find out some secrets including Dark Souls games

[Labadal]

300 hours??? Well, that's a platinum I'll never go for. I don't have time to spend that much time on one single game anymore.

[Hurlshort]

 

There are a lot of ways you can play the game. The more stuff you kill, the more aggressive the aliens get, ...

 

Wait? What? In what way do they become "more aggressive"? Aren't they always hostile anyway?

 

You are not in combat the majority of the time in Prey.

 

Well, enemies don't usually respawn in the "regular" sense, appears to be based on your actions (eg. pushing the plot forward is a surefire way to have a bunch of new enemies waiting...everywhere), so murdering everything gives some measure of peace, for a while. Some locations do seem too have enemies spawn regularly on entering though (workshop, I think?)

 

 

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that the amount of enemies that respawn was based on how much stuff you have been killing, as well as other factors.

[Mamoulian War]

300 hours??? Well, that's a platinum I'll never go for. I don't have time to spend that much time on one single game anymore.

To be honest, I think it should be doable under 200 - 250 hours, maybe even less. I have spent a lot of time doing stuff which were not needed for platinum trophy. I just like Tales of games a lot, so I enjoy trying out a lot of optional stuff, and sometimes I have some special house rules for my blind playthroughs, like always trying to play on hardest difficulty, even if it means doing some bossfights over and over, until I find a way how to beat them :-P

 

If you will do only stuff, which is required for Platinum, and don't bother with farming stuff for Cameo Weapons, you should be done much much faster with the Platinum, than me.

 

How long it took you to Platinum the first Xillia?

 

Edit: oh, and use for my New Game + in Tales of games only double experience. If you spent grade for 10x experience, you will save crazy amount of time compared to me. I just rather play one good game twice, than two mediocre games once :-P So I never rush :-P

Edited July 15, 2017 by Mamoulian War

[Labadal]

 

300 hours??? Well, that's a platinum I'll never go for. I don't have time to spend that much time on one single game anymore.

To be honest, I think it should be doable under 200 - 250 hours, maybe even less. I have spent a lot of time doing stuff which were not needed for platinum trophy. I just like Tales of games a lot, so I enjoy trying out a lot of optional stuff, and sometimes I have some special house rules for my blind playthroughs, like always trying to play on hardest difficulty, even if it means doing some bossfights over and over, until I find a way how to beat them :-P

 

If you will do only stuff, which is required for Platinum, and don't bother with farming stuff for Cameo Weapons, you should be done much much faster with the Platinum, than me.

 

How long it took you to Platinum the first Xillia?

 

Edit: oh, and use for my New Game + in Tales of games only double experience. If you spent grade for 10x experience, you will save crazy amount of time compared to me. I just rather play one good game twice, than two mediocre games once :-P So I never rush :-P

 

I think it took me 85-90 hours range.

[Mamoulian War]

Ok, I have just checked 10x experience NG+ for you. People rushing the game and skipping some skits were able to get the Platinum with 10x EXP under 100 hours O.o

 

Edit: Xilla 1 for me was around 135 hours, so you can save a lot of time compared to me :-D

 

I'll say go for ToX2 too ;-)

Edited July 15, 2017 by Mamoulian War

[Keyrock]

I've started my work on the final elusive target in HITMAN.  As per usual, I am only doing reconnaissance work at first.  You can't save during an elusive target mission, but you can exit out of the mission and restart provided you didn't die nor did you complete any objectives.  For this particular mission there are 2 objectives:

1. Kill a target
2. Retrieve an item

I have managed to locate the target.  Killing the target will be easy.  Killing the target unseen will be a bit harder, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem.  I could snipe the target quite easily, but I would prefer to poison the target, as that is much too delicious a bit of poetic justice for me to pass up.  I have yet to locate the item, though, and I will want to retrieve the item before I make the kill.  Back to snooping around I go. 

[SonicMage117]

My recent pickups/pee-odors are:

 

Pyre

Sundered

Sonic Mania

The Escapists 2

 

I feel like I'm missing one... but I will be playing all of them on their release dates. That's all along throughout late July and August.

[Malcador]

Losing pretty much every game in Overwatch competitive. Wish I could go Pharah as I'm best at that, but have to deal with some other useless fool going as her or teammates bitching about needing heals/tank but not switching. 

[Katphood]

The Wolf Among Us which is pretty darn sweet.

[Tale]

Dies Irae, I'm on the Kei route now. It's probably better than average for a VN, but I keep wanting to just rush through it.

 

Prey, I'm making slow but steady progress. I haven't gotten to the point where alien powers show up yet, I wonder how long it'll be until then.

 

God Eater Resurrection. Probably the game that's easiest to lose myself in. If I didn't feel obligated to finish the other two first it'd be the only one I was playing right now.