What are you currently playing?

[TheMightyEthan]

What kind of game is that? It's it like a turn based rpg?

[toxicitizen]

God Eater? It's basically poor man's Monster Hunter. It had significantly more appeal before Monster Hunter went multiplat. Bought the remasters a few years ago and now it seems unlikely I'll ever touch them.

 

As for why I'm here, Street Fighter V update: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

 

Best part is I'm pretty sure the initial rank up match (I've since deranked back to bronze and climbed back up to Silver) was against a bot but like... not just any bot but this fucking... thing:

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by toxicitizen

[MetalCaveman]

Basically Monster Hunter Lite with a sci-fi setting.

[MetalCaveman]

Wow... God Eater 3 just outright starts with the "Is humanity worth saving?" and a quick answer "Nah, they ain't"

 

Usually it takes longer for these questions to pop up and the answer is more often than not a "Yeah, in spite of everything else, it's worth fighting for"

 

This time though, not only do God Eaters get treated like disposable things, one of the guards in this prison is

Spoiler

poisoning some little kid just to save some bucks...

 

NGL, Kinda want the Aragami to win this one lol

 

Edit: Well, that didn't last long lol, we're back to business as usual.

 

Spoiler

I do wonder if they'll say what happened to those assholes, hope they all got chomped by aragami lol

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by MetalCaveman

[TheMightyEthan]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

 

I have never actually played this game before, despite considering myself quite the Zelda fan. I'd started it, but never made it farther than beating the first dungeon. I wanted another handheld game though, and for whatever reason this called to me.

 

I'm most of the way through it now, and I can clearly see how groundbreaking it would have been when it was new, but it's definitely showing its age. Little stuff, like the hitbox being wonky on the sword slashes, in addition to bigger stuff like the design often being simultaneously simplistic and obtuse. I'm not sure if I'll actually finish it or not, I've gotten to the point where I'm not really having fun anymore, just going through the motions. I thought that yesterday too though, but then a couple hours later went back and beat the fourth dark world dungeon, so we'll see. I definitely think it could benefit from a remake ala Link's Awakening though, to make it feel that little bit better to play.

 

Side note: I tip my cap to anyone who beat this legitimately back in the day (or now). I've been playing on an emulator, so I have the benefit of save states, and even then some of this stuff has been ridiculous. The last two bosses I resorted to an infinite health cheat code just cause I didn't want to keep retrying over and over and over.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I've given up on it a few times for similar reasons. Tempted a few times to just go through it with a walkthrough but now you've mentioned a remake I think I'll keep my fingers crossed for that as I've never been tempted by one before.

[TheMightyEthan]

I've been trying to avoid walkthroughs as much as possible, because when I start doing that it really exacerbates the "just going through the motions" feeling, so I've been trying to only do that when I'm truly stuck.

 

I don't want to sound like I'm really down on the game, I can tell I would have found it completely amazing when it came out, just that was 30 years ago. I'm honestly still really impressed with it, and I did enjoy it for a good chunk of time, I'm just starting to lose that enjoyment as I get to the end of the game. If I do end up finishing it it'll just be because I'm so close. Three more dark world dungeons and then the final dungeon left.

[MetalCaveman]

I played A Link to the Past on GBA, I remember enjoying it a fair bit, does that one count as a remake or remaster? Don't know if they changed much other than the graphics. It is one of the few Zelda games I've actually finished though, so there's that.

 

Back to God Eater 3, after playing a bit more... Holy cow! This game fixes a lot of the issues I had with the previous two, first, sprint speed feels way faster and stamina doesn't drain as fast, or at least it feels like that, second, there's now a "dive" move, a long jump that propels you forward at a really high speed, perfect for catching up to aragami that are trying to run away or to quickly close the distance to a target.

 

The new weapons feel much better and more fun than previous additions, which felt too slow, or did not hit hard enough for me, so I kept using the standard blade, this time, the twin blades are super fast dealing a decent amount of damage and their glaive form does a huge amount of damage, at the expense of being unable to recover stamina until you switch back to twin blade form, still, they're pretty fun to use, the moon weapons are awesome too, slightly faster than blades, with a much more acrobatic and flashy combat style, the axe form is great for dealing huge amounts of damage on downed aragami.

 

Predator styles are back too!! Kinda, don't know if you can customize them, but the different devour styles are back and they're awesome. Much easier to stay in burst now.

 

Biggest complaint though, custom bullets are limited now, you can only bring a certain amount of them so the options for strong bullet recipes are fairly limited this time around, in fact, most of the recipes I've found are for fireworks bullets, which do no damage but look cool.

[TheMightyEthan]

46 minutes ago, MetalCaveman said:

I played A Link to the Past on GBA, I remember enjoying it a fair bit, does that one count as a remake or remaster? Don't know if they changed much other than the graphics. It is one of the few Zelda games I've actually finished though, so there's that.

 

I didn't even know there was a GBA version until now, and looking it up it has some control and QoL improvements, so I'm kind of annoyed I didn't play that one instead. 

[danielpholt]

The Stanley Parable - Ultra Deluxe Edition

 

It's been a while since I played the OG game, but I feel like I have a decent enough memory that I can dive into the new content straight away. 

 

So I did just that, and it's great. Few games make me laugh, but after about an hour of playtime the new content has had me genuinely laughing out loud. I was a bit worried that the 'gaming space' had moved on since 2013, but the jokes are still funny, and so far the comedy hasn't felt stilted or forced. 

 

 

[Mister Jack]

Shredder's Revenge is so damn charming. I don't know where to begin with how great this game is. The six player co-op? The cartoony graphics and animation? The updated gameplay that preserves the old mechanics and moves while also improving them to give you better control and variety? The many, many references not just to the tv show but also previous Turtles games? The 90s style music complete with goofy, cheesy butt rock and hip hop themes you'd expect to find on one of the old movie soundtracks? The boss fights with pretty much any old school Turtles villain you could ask for? Really, the only thing I can say in the negative about the game is that it's short, but it's a beat-em-up. You should know it's short before you even buy it, and even then there are challenges and achievements to go for to give it some extra replay value. I may just have to declare this the best Turtles game ever made. It's right up there with Turtles in Time at least.

[TheMightyEthan]

That game looks radical.

[danielpholt]

Neon White

 

It's sort of a card based action platformer thing, actually getting some Boomerang X vibes off it. I'm not very far in, but what I've played so far has felt really good. 

There appears to be an overworld area where you can talk to your fellow....Neon people, build relationships and possibly upgrade your gear, but I'm not far enough into that to truly understand what it is.

 

For those interested, it's from the guy that made Donut County, although it feels like a more more mature game that than, at least so far (or maybe my mind has been broken through being on the internet for 20 years). 

 

If that sounds up your street then it's available on Switch and PC for £20.

[TheMightyEthan]

The Game Informer review said it's like the t-shirt section of a Hot Topic collided with the anime section of a Suncoast Video, which frankly sounds awesome.

[TheMightyEthan]

Hades

 

So I'm having a better time with this game than I did the first time around. I started a new game, and beat Megara on my third run (got to her on my second but died), which is way faster than before. I actually made it all the way to the second boss on that run, and managed to beat him and get to the third area by run 8. When I played at launch I had 11 runs on record and never even got to the boss of the second area, and that was with God Mode on (I actually thought I was playing with God Mode this time but only recently realized it actually wasn't activated). I have since made it to the third boss, but forgot to look at my run total.

 

I'm not frustrated with the progression the way I was when I first played it, I think partially just because I'm doing so much better. I got gud, I guess? It has crystalized in my mind what exactly I didn't like about it before though. I said it was that I felt like there wasn't enough progress between runs, and I think that's right in the broad sense, but more specifically I think it's because you have to play through the entire thing on every run, bosses included. In other roguelites, at least the ones I've liked, you only ever have to fight each boss once, but Hades makes you fight them all every single time. Also in other ones you tend to unlock shortcuts that let you jump to later biomes without going through the entirety of all the earlier ones in ever single attempt, but in Hades the only way out is straight through. It makes the runs feel more repetitive, and more padded with busywork at the beginning.

 

All that said, unless I hit a wall I do think I'll manage to finish it this time.

[TheMightyEthan]

Prey: Mooncrash

 

Even though I loved the base game, I never played this DLC because for some reason the roguelite mode didn't appeal to me. Not sure why, I've definitely enjoyed other roguelites. Anyway, the full package was free on EGS recently so I snagged it. I've only done one run so far, but I enjoyed what I played. It's almost the opposite of Deathloop, you're playing as five different people on a moon base that's been overrun by Typhon, then as each character you play either dies or escapes then you jump to the next one, and your goal is to escape with all of them in the same run. (The explanation for  the loop in this one is that you're actually another employee running a simulation.) It's really cool so far, and I'm looking forward to more. It's also been a good test case for whether VRR really solves my issues with PC gaming, and early signs are good. Game drops into the 50s at 4k max settings? No problem, don't gotta go into the settings menu to fix it, just let it fluctuate.

[danielpholt]

14 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

Prey: Mooncrash

 

Even though I loved the base game, I never played this DLC because for some reason the roguelite mode didn't appeal to me. Not sure why, I've definitely enjoyed other roguelites. Anyway, the full package was free on EGS recently so I snagged it. I've only done one run so far, but I enjoyed what I played. It's almost the opposite of Deathloop, you're playing as five different people on a moon base that's been overrun by Typhon, then as each character you play either dies or escapes then you jump to the next one, and your goal is to escape with all of them in the same run. (The explanation for  the loop in this one is that you're actually another employee running a simulation.) It's really cool so far, and I'm looking forward to more. It's also been a good test case for whether VRR really solves my issues with PC gaming, and early signs are good. Game drops into the 50s at 4k max settings? No problem, don't gotta go into the settings menu to fix it, just let it fluctuate.

 

I bounced off of Mooncrash so hard. Prey had me from moment one but Mooncrash was like pulling teeth. Hope you stick with it.

 

Also your Hades take is personally offensive to me. 

[TheMightyEthan]

4 hours ago, danielpholt said:

 

I bounced off of Mooncrash so hard. Prey had me from moment one but Mooncrash was like pulling teeth. Hope you stick with it.

 

Also your Hades take is personally offensive to me. 

 

Do you know what it is you didn't like about Mooncrash, or is it one of those things you can't put your finger on?

 

As far as Hades, I really wanted to like it, and there's a lot there that's really really good, but there's just a few too many missteps thrown in with it.

[TheMightyEthan]

Still playing Mooncrash, still really liking it. Even though it's a different team, it's pretty obvious there was a lot of cross-pollination between this and Deathloop, a lot of the ideas in Deathloop show up in a less-developed form in this game. Which isn't a criticism, it's actually a surprisingly deep system for a post-launch addition to a non-roguelike game. For instance, things you do with one character affect the world for subsequent characters. So like if you pick up a health pack with your first character it won't be there for subsequent characters, until you reset the simulation, but rewards build the more characters you successfully escape with without resetting. It creates this situation where you're having to think strategically not just about your goals for this particular character for this run, but about your goals for all the later characters too, so you can make sure that things are set up in a way that enables them to do what they need. It's really cool.

[danielpholt]

On 6/20/2022 at 5:46 PM, TheMightyEthan said:

 

Do you know what it is you didn't like about Mooncrash, or is it one of those things you can't put your finger on?

 

As far as Hades, I really wanted to like it, and there's a lot there that's really really good, but there's just a few too many missteps thrown in with it.

 

I wonder if it was a time and place thing. I had very little interest in Prey until I finally gave it a look, and then for the week I was playing it, it's all I thought about. 

 

Neon White 

 

The first few hours are great. However, I feel like I've hit a pretty nasty difficulty spike where the game goes from being 'learn the route and execute' to more of a 'you need to be pinpoint in your accuracy and timing if you hope to get through this', and playing on Joycons...that's tough at the best of times. 

 

Going to keep going. I may end up jumping off of this however, which is a shame because those opening few hours are magnificent. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by danielpholt

[TheMightyEthan]

Deliver Us the Moon

 

Started this last night. I've only done the first two missions, but so far I'm really liking it. At the end of the first mission there's a rocket launch, and you actually are flipping all the switches and shit in the cockpit, and it is one of the coolest things I've ever done in a game. I would buy a VR game that was just that (though it would need to be more detailed).

 

It's also the first game I'm actually playing (ie not just benchmarking) that supports RT and DLSS, and it's so pretty. (And with DLSS even my puny 3060 Ti can run it at 4k 50-60 fps with full RT.)

 

If the rest of the game stands up to first impressions it may be one of my favorite games I play this year, and I'm already looking forward to Deliver Us Mars.

[danielpholt]

The Quarry

 

The folks who made Until Dawn are back with what is largely their first 'traditional' offering in years. No weird multi-screen gaming experiences, or 6-monthly released anthology's here, just a bunch of dumb-but-sexy-teens making typical dumb-but-sexy-teen like errors in judgement, only this time we're away at summer camp.

 

I'm only a few hours in, but what I've played so far has been a welcome return to a formula I really enjoy, with a tiny bit more work thrown into the overall look and feel of the game; the teens have emotions and the camp has god-rays and soft lighting.

 

To be fair, they've clearly been working on their facial tech. The Quarry is a noticeable improvement on their previous offerings. They've still not got the eyes or the teeth quite right, but everything else looks absolutely incredible. 

 

 

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Hardspace: Shipbreaker

 

This game is great. You play as a scrap worker in an orbital drydock, breaking down ships that have reached end of life. You have to crawl inside them and cut struts to break it into manageable pieces, pull out valuable electronics before sending the bulk frame into the smelter, avoid accidentally cutting fuel lines, or piercing a still-pressurized compartment, that kind of thing. All for an evil corporation that has put you in about a billion dollars of debt just to get your training and whatnot, and now you have to work it off. It's so satisfying and cool.

 

It's also Homeworld: Shipbreaker in all but name, all the ships are very much in the style of those games. It just adds another awesome layer on top of the already superb experience.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Had a go at Count Lucanor. The movement was frustratingly slow but I thought I was going to enjoy myself. Then I lost 90% of my progress when I died which is not usual for the sort of games I play (where I'd usually choose to die than use a potion/food etc.). I decided to have a little break from it and look at the best way to go about that aspect but will come back to it as it seems like I'd like to get at least one of the endings for it.

[TheMightyEthan]

I'm as much as of a potion hoarder as the next guy, but out of curiosity why do you choose to die instead of using a healing item?