toxicitizen

Heard really good things about it and I haven't played a good western since RDR so I figured 50% off was cheap enough to give it a shot. Also grabbed the Super Meat Boy soundtrack cause it was like a dollar.

Started playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. So far, it's pretty good. I wasn't a fan of the fixed camera at first but I got used to it pretty quickly. I'm not sure what, if anything, it actually has to do with Castlevania, though. Because so far it's more like God of Shadow of the Colossus. I'm okay with that. Also, it's narrated by Captain Picard, so that's another bonus. Oh and, for the first time in a while, I actually swallowed my pride and turned down the difficulty. I've been playing most games on hard rather than normal lately. So I went with Knight, which is what I assumed was hard. Paladin was higher but it's locked. Anyway, on the second chapter I realized this was going to be a very frustrating experience. This game does not hold your hand. "Barely made it through that fight? Okay, here's a checkpoint. And another fight. Oh you don't have any health left? Well, you can try again from that checkpoint but we're not refilling your health bar!" It's actually kind of refreshing, to be honest. I think they want you to just replay the levels once you're fully upgraded. When you unlock Paladin you don't actually start a new game, you just level select.

Yeah, Nightwing plays incredibly well. He felt a bit weird at first but once you get a handle on his moveset he's probably the most powerful character in the game. It's a shame they didn't bother getting a voice actor for him. I mean, I can see why considering he's only in the challenge rooms but still, would've been nice to have at least a few lines.

Reminds me, I grabbed Lego Batman a little while back. I should probably fire it up soon. I mean, I doubt it could be worse than Arkham origins...

Mortal Kombat. Beat the story mode just now. Holy shit, that was a ton of fun. I was super into MK as a kid and, while I hadn't touched the series in years, this one retreads the story from those days so it was quite the nostalgic experience. I had always been kind of fascinated by the lore but it always felt like I wasn't getting the whole picture. MK1 was straightforward enough but 2 got all dark and creepy and Shang Tsung was young for some reason. Then 3 came and suddenly you had robots and Earth was all post-apocalyptic and shit. It was intriguing as hell but I couldn't really understand english back then so what the fuck was actually going on was a mystery. So, yeah, it was really cool to have all of that lore fit into one cohesive story. I love when fighting games have a proper story mode. I mean, Street Fighter IV is great but there's only so many times I can replay through arcade before getting kinda bored with it. Here the story mode kept me busy for 10-12 hours and I'm just getting started with the game. That being said, a few things could be improved in a sequel. Cutscenes: allow me to pause them and skip them. Seriously, how the fuck does such a cutscene-heavy game mode not get such basic features in, what was it, 2011? It's annoying enough if you need to go take a piss or whatever but then if you get stuck and quit from a fight that had a long-ass cutscene before it (basically, almost every time there's a chapter change), then you're forced to rewatch it the next time you play. Some kind of chapter select would've nice too but that's not really a big deal. Oh and fuck Shao Kahn. Fuck that guy right in his fucking eye. He is broken and he cheats and he needs to eat shit. The first couple times, he's not too bad since you're fighting him as Liu Kang and you can play cheap if you want. But the final fight against him was so fucking infuriating! No more Liu Kang and I swear they increased both his damage and defense. And you can't fucking stagger that asshole, so very often your timing will be great but he'll just keep swinging that fucking hammer of his right through your attack. Wasted almost an hour on him last night and ended up having to stop because I had to go to bed. Only took me like 20 mins to finally beat him today but it sucks so much when it's late and you know you're at the end and you wanna finish the game before turning it off but it just won't fucking happen. Kind of anticlimactic to jump back in just for the final fight, it just kinda kills all the tension and build up. But anyway, these complaints about the story mode aside, the gameplay is pretty great. I'll definitely keep playing this one for a while. The Challenge Tower should be me busy for a few more hours. I'll probably give online a shot, too. I fully expect to get my ass handed to me and never touch it again but whatever.

My favorite part of this is the people saying it's a nod, an homage to their own game. Instead of, you know, the lazy corner-cutting it actually is. I mean, re-texturing a building for a multiplayer map, I can understand. But this is blatantly lazy and laughable.

DLC? It's a separate game. As long as you can freely ignore GZ and still get a full experience with Phantom Pain, I don't have an issue with it. I don't think you should expect GZ to be too long, though. I would imagine a few hours (like 3-4, maybe 5) with cutscenes and subsequent playthrough would be very short if you skip the story. At least, that's how MGS usually is. If we compare to previous games, Tanker and Virtuous Mission can both be done in like 30mins if you know what you're doing and skip the cutscenes. That being said, while 20-30$ might seem steep for a short game, it's essentially a AAA game in terms of production values so I'm alright with the price, I think.

Looks like they finally made up their fucking mind. About fucking time.

Started playing Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition. Holy shit, this game is so much goddamned fun. The gameplay itself is pretty good and x-ray attacks are crazy satisfying to pull off. But man, that story mode. I kinda lost interest in the series during the PS2/Xbox/GCN gen but back when I was a kid MK was the shit. The bowling alley near my house had the arcade machines for both MK 1 and 2 and I was there all the damn time. The arcade versions were way too difficult for me but I still kept going back. Later on when I got a Sega Genesis, I got the games for it and played them for years. The fact that the story mode is not only very good but also a retelling of the story from those days basically turns it into pure nostalgia for me. I'm having such a blast with it.

The thing is, just because you haven't experienced those issues doesn't mean they don't exist. It happens. Some people are luckier with buggy games. All it means is your opinion that Origins' combat isn't broken is based on incomplete information. Can we at least agree on that much?

Yeah, that's just you sucking. The game is mechanically sound. Like I said, less refined combat system > broken combat system. Also, I love that opening idea. Arkham City had a great opening (the Bruce Wayne bit, not the Catwoman one) and while I thought the cutscenes in Origins were great, it was nowhere near as good of an intro. Would be great if next-gen the series gets a proper open-world. These are kinda small, they don't feel like open worlds so much as hubs for the story levels. They have more in common with the castle from Super Mario 64 than they do with say, Liberty City. Also, Blüdhaven DLC where you play as Nightwing. Make it happen!

There were rumors a while back that Rocksteady's next game would be a Silver Age game that would include members of the Justice League. I'm not sure if that was ever proven to be false, though. All I know for sure is that Kevin Conroy slipped earlier this year at a convention and said he was working with Rocksteady on a game that wasn't Origins. I'm not sure if Long Halloween would work considering it takes place over an entire year. But I definitely think it's time to move away from the whole "longest night in Batman's career" thing. Just do a proper open-world game where the events of the story aren't all taking place over the course of a single night. I don't see why there couldn't be time that passes between some missions.

Ah, that makes sense. I thought it had also come out on PSN at the same time but looking at wikipedia it seems the PSN version came at the same time as the PC one. That's a shame, the game deserves better.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Holy shit. What a great game. You guys all need to play this. It's really short so 15$ might seem a bit steep but it's much better than you'd think looking at gameplay footage. I don't remember people making a big deal about it when it came out (at least not on the level of something like Bastion) and that's just plain wrong. The idea of a coop game for one player is interesting in and of itself but the game is really greater than the sum of its parts. The art direction is beautiful , the game keeps adding new gameplay elements to keep things fresh but they never overstay their welcome and the story is just really good. This game goes from pure fun and joy to wonder and even has a few moments that are sad, really grim and kinda dark. Seriously, it has enough emotion in it to give David Cage a raging hard-on. And it's all done without any dialogue. I mean, there is dialogue but it's in some made-up gibberish language. And the best part: the strongest emotional moments are conveyed entirely through gameplay. When something as simple as a detail of level design feels like a gut punch, you know you're playing something special. Really glad I picked this one up.

I'm a sucker for costumes. Playing AC in that Batman Beyond costume was way more fun than I expected. And I shit on the game a lot but I'm still enjoying it so I'm definitely going to be doing NG+ and at least attempt I am The Night at some point. Can you elaborate? I'm curious what makes you think so because I just don't see it. Asylum and City feel pretty similar to me, at least mechanically speaking. And that's also where I feel Origins went wrong.

Was broke last time it went on sale so I've been on the lookout for another deal ever since. 66% off plus a 20% voucher on GMG so about 8 bucks. There's a 25% voucher that currently works on both the game and the season pass. Brings it down to 15 buck, which is good enough for me to bite. I'm a sucker for Batskins and this has like 12 of the damn things. Also, I'll definitely want that story DLC once it comes out.

I guess I just don't see how it could possibly be better when it simply doesn't work as well. I'll take a less refined combat system over a broken one. Also, GMG currently has a 25% voucher that works on the season pass. Knocks 5 bucks off the price. Tempting...

Well, the fights that do give me trouble are the ones with tons of enemies of all varieties, not just any trivial fights. And, to be fair, I think the main reason I sometimes still struggle with those is because of how much I'm still used to how combat felt in AA and AC. My timing and instincts are now just a bit off to the point where a single mistake can throw me off my rhythm entirely. I can no longer just "get in the zone" and pull off crazy combos without thinking like I used to. I always end up missing a counter or not dodging fast enough because those moves used to be trivial for me and now my window to pull them off has been changed in a subtle way. Then there's the actual fuck ups Hot Heart mentioned where moves won't connect for some fucking reason. All things combined, it just makes for a frustrating experience, imho. And the way the shock gloves just fucking break combat is ridiculous but that's another issue entirely. But honestly, I think this sums it all up nicely: That's a pretty core aspect to have screwed up right there. I mean, it is called the freeflow combat system, after all.

I'm with Hot Heart. The game is a complete mess and I hope they don't get another shot at the series. Just leave it to those who can do it well. And having replayed Asylum recently, I couldn't disagree with you more, Ethan. Asylum is a better game than Origins. Sure, it's rougher and doesn't benefit from the gameplay improvements City brought to the table. But on a functional level, it just works better. A lot of stuff in Origins feels like it's there just because it had to be. It feels a lot like AC Revelations to me. It does the exact same thing without putting any thought into why it was there or what made it work in the first place. And the changes they did make didn't seem to work, for the most part. At this point, I think almost everyone is in agreement that they fucked up the combat in a subtle way. I fired up Arkham City last night to do the Halloween Calendar Man date and just for the hell of it I got into a fight and it just felt so much better. To give you an idea, I replayed Asylum last week. Played on hard and all my combat skills from playing tons of Arkham City over the summer kicked right back in. None of the fights gave me any trouble whatsoever and I beat all the challenge rooms in a single day. But I have almost 30 hours logged into Origins according to Steam and I still occasionally get my ass kicked by some random crime-in-progress.

I find it hard to be too bothered by this. The way people have been trading and giving away keys was almost abusive. While it wasn't really enforced until now, they've said it in the past that you were never supposed to just give away whichever games you didn't want. I mean, shit, it's for charity. Might as well throw 'em a few bucks.

Oh, well that fucking sucks then. You might enjoy his show Jimquisition, then. New episodes are posted on The Escapist first but there's a ton of them on youtube. It's mostly him commenting on current affairs related to the games industry. Like I said earlier in the thread, Sterling and I aren't really on the same page when it comes to game reviews. But he's usually spot-on on Jimquisition. I started watching the show a couple months ago and it's made me gain a lot of respect for the man. On a semi-related note, it seems he left Destructoid today. This soon after the Arkham Origins reviews, it's hard not to wonder if there isn't some kind of correlation, however small.

At least you can probably backtrack out and do other stuff, right? I'm saying that because it sounds like the new patch introduced a game-breaking bug in the final boss fight and when you encounter it, you're locked there and can't go back to the open world. Goddamn, this studio is not off to a great start...

Yay, new patch fixed Burnley tower!

So there's more to it than just the social aspect?

So kinda like disabling the multiplayer aspect of Dark Souls? Lol, I expected something a bit more... substantial.