TheMightyEthan Posted January 4, 2020 Report Share Posted January 4, 2020 Yeah yeah, I couldn't come up with a clever name for the thread... Ace Combat 7 This game was really great. Out of 20 missions, there was only one that pissed me off, which honestly for this type of game is kind of amazing, and even that one was fun to actually play, it was just hard to get enough points within the time limit and the repetition got frustrating. I was impressed with how varied they were able to make the missions feel, considering at its core there's really only two types they can do: attack ground targets, or attack air targets. Hopefully the next one doesn't spend so long in development hell. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted January 7, 2020 Report Share Posted January 7, 2020 Snatcher Yeah, the old Sega CD game that was one of Hideo Kojima's first projects. I modded my Genesis mini to play CD games and loaded this onto it because it's always listed as being one of the few good games on the system, and it is. It's got a few shooting segments that are meant for a light gun, although they work fine with a controller, but for the most part this is a visual novel. It's a pretty cool premise, though. It takes place in a dystopian cyberpunk future 50 years after a bioweapon has killed 80% of the Eurasian population and society is starting to rebuild itself over there, with Japan being a hub for people and refugees of all races to live together. In the last three years, however, androids called Snatchers have appeared out of nowhere, named such because they are killing humans and replacing them with identical replicas. You play as a junker (Snatcher hunter) with memory loss who is assigned to a government junker agency as a new recruit along with a little robot buddy named, wait for it, Metal Gear. Over the course of the game you investigate a murder and naturally get caught up in a conspiracy while working to regain your memories and find out where the Snatchers came from in the first place and what they want. If this sounds a lot like Blade Runner and Invasion of the Body Snatchers to you, you're not wrong, but the two ideas marry together pretty well and it's a pretty interesting narrative for such an old platform. The final act is mostly an extended ending with minimal interaction, but apparently this was added to the Sega CD version after the original game's cliffhanger ending didn't result in a sequel. It still manages to provide a decent payoff for the story. I wouldn't really say you need to play this game yourself since the shooting sections are just kinda tacked on and the rest of it is just going through menus, but it's worth at least checking out on Youtube sometime. Kojima had his unique style even back then. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted January 8, 2020 Report Share Posted January 8, 2020 Bloodborne I'm a few years late on this one but it feels good to have finally played all the Soulsborne games. This one was especially painful to not have access to because it seemed to be generally considered the best one and I kinda love cosmic horror. Now I'm kinda confused why it's so highly regarded compared to Dark Souls because it's... really not that different? At least not significantly enough to justify the amount of people that loved it but that claim to not like Dark Souls. The lore is much cooler and the game does some really cool shit with it (so cool that it still had a massive impact on my enjoyment even though the game had long been thoroughly spoiled for me) but that aspect is ultimately pretty subjective. The faster combat is generally cited as being a big factor but honestly to me the gameplay in general felt very similar. I mean, it's not like Dark Souls forces you to turtle up behind a shield and play slowly. There's a ton of build variety and my playstyle has always been more of a high risk "run up in their faces and kill them before they can react" strategy, which is pretty much exactly how Bloodborne wants you to play. The trick weapons are pretty great, though. I picked the threaded cane because it sounded cool and I made my character to be a scholarly/scientist type, so it seemed like a good fit. I liked it enough that I ended up upgrading it all the way to max level and keeping it for the entire game. I tried some of the other weapons but didn't like them as much, although at that point I had already committed to a skill build, so I was limited in what I could realistically switch to. Fighting with a cane sword that turns into a whip was different enough to make the combat feel fresh all over again but I've seen a ton of videos of people playing with large swords exactly like Dark Souls so again, it's not like the combat is inherently different. The one major difference there is to combat is the way armor works. The stats vary so little from one set to another that they might as well be cosmetic only. The weapon choice is also much more limited, which ends up making it feel like more of an action game than a full-on RPG like Dark Souls. It was interesting playing it after Sekiro because to me it really felt like the missing link between Dark Souls and Sekiro. And as far as the gameplay is concerned, I think I enjoyed Sekiro more. The story on the other hand... Like I said, the game had already been pretty much completely spoiled for me. But I still couldn't help but appreciate how it spends the first few hours lulling you into a false sense of security by basically going: "Yeah man, this is a totally normal werewolf game dude. Don't even worry about it!" And as you get deeper into the city, night falls and you start seeing these really creepy statues in the cathedral and the surrounding woods. Then you get deep enough into those woods and suddenly there's a significant increase in how tentacle-y everything is and WAIT, what the FUCK is that?! You kill a certain boss and then the Truth reveals itself to you and it's just such a gigantic HOLY SHIT moment. I can only imagine how fucking awesome it must've been for people that played at launch after going in with no information whatsoever. It's such an incredible way to build up to it that by the time I was in the late game and fairly overpowered, I was still tense as fuck because of how creepy everything was. I honestly can't think of anything else that executed this kind of twist so well. It's so fucking good! It reeeeaaally fucking sucks that this is the game stuck in a console exclusivity deal because holy shit, I wanna play this on PC. I mean, I kinda did through PS Now but it's just not the same. The image quality in general is shit because of the compression that's inevitable when streaming a game. And the game's art direction is so fucking good, I wanna crank the resolution way up and put some anti-aliasing on that shit. Running it at 60fps would also significantly improve the experience. Normally I'd jump into NG+ and go for all the trophies but playing on PS Now kinda makes me not give a shit about that. I went out of my way to do all the optional areas and bosses, got the secret ending and watched the others on youtube. The game doesn't even include the Old Hunters DLC anyway, so I could go for the platinum but I'd still be missing a few trophies. Besides, they just added Uncharted Lost Legacy and Horizon on PS Now (this one actually including the DLC, for some reason) so I kinda need to move on because, unlike Bloodborne, those are only available for a limited time. And my new GPU got here literally as I was typing this up, so there's also some Witcher 3 to play! 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pojodin Posted January 8, 2020 Report Share Posted January 8, 2020 Yeah, Bloodborne at launch was good times. The combat won't feel as fast coming off of Sekiro, but at the time it was the fasted most aggressive entry. The game clicked with me right out of the gates and I was pretty unstoppable for a fair portion of the game. I've enjoyed pretty much every Souls. I even went back to 2 to get the platinum trophy after it irked to stop stop after my initial playthrough. Bloodborne was good times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted January 8, 2020 Report Share Posted January 8, 2020 (edited) @FLD As much as I liked Sekiro, I think I'd still say Bloodborne is my favorite From game. I'm a sucker for cosmic horror themes too as well as gothic horror and putting the two together is just...mwah. It also helps that the lore is much easier to grasp than any of the Dark Souls games. Even with From's minimalist style of storytelling, I still had a pretty good idea of what was going on. The Old Hunters really adds a lot and the sawblade on a stick from it became my go-to weapon, though there are lots of other interesting options including actual eldritch body parts if you go for a high arcane build. If you ever somehow get the opportunity to revisit the game with all the content included I highly recommend it because the DLC's additions can make it feel almost totally new again depending on how you play. As far as the armor goes I found it's more about maximizing resistances than increasing your defense stat and I would often change my outfit depending on what I was up against. You definitely notice a difference between armor with low or high frenzy resistance when you're up against those damn winter lanterns. God I really hope we get a Bloodborne 2 on the PS5. Edited January 8, 2020 by Mister Jack 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted January 9, 2020 Report Share Posted January 9, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, Pojodin said: I've enjoyed pretty much every Souls. I even went back to 2 to get the platinum trophy after it irked to stop stop after my initial playthrough. Bloodborne was good times. Yeah, same. Dark Souls 2 is the worst one but it's still pretty damn good. I still need to play the Scholar of the First Sin remix as well as some of the DLC. I also have the Dark Souls Remaster in my backlog and the DLC for Dark Souls 3 so I have a replay of the entire series planned for the near future. I'll probably slowly work my way through them this year since I have a feeling Elden Ring isn't coming until 2021. 3 hours ago, Mister Jack said: As far as the armor goes I found it's more about maximizing resistances than increasing your defense stat and I would often change my outfit depending on what I was up against. You definitely notice a difference between armor with low or high frenzy resistance when you're up against those damn winter lanterns. Yeah, dealing with frenzy is literally the only time I ever needed to look at my armor stats and see if I needed to change it and even then I just ended up using a rune instead. It was to get past that one enemy in the Nightmare of Mensis, you know the one. And it turned out I was going the wrong way, I didn't even need to run past it where I was trying to lol. Edited January 9, 2020 by FLD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorgiShinobi Posted January 9, 2020 Report Share Posted January 9, 2020 (edited) Bloodborne is also my favorite of the FromSoftware games, or I should say "Soulsborne" since they've done other stuff. The only thing I didn't like was farming for blood vials if a particular boss happened to be challenging and exhausting your resource. Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos... Still wish I had saved the recording of a fight with Father Gascoigne. Parried him a few times in a row, thinking I was going to win, and then my first time seeing his transformation. He leaps in the air, crushes me, and I see the words "Bloodborne." Edited January 9, 2020 by CorgiShinobi You know, it might be a spoiler 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted January 9, 2020 Report Share Posted January 9, 2020 33 minutes ago, CorgiShinobi said: The only thing I didn't like was farming for blood vials if a particular boss happened to be challenging and exhausting your resource. Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos... Oh yeah, I didn't think to mention it because it honestly wasn't that much of a problem for me but that's a big issue with the game in general. I only had to farm blood vials twice, once super early on while I was still learning how to fight (I think I ran out because of Blood-Starved Beast) and then again at Ebrietas. For most of the game, I had plenty with just what I found and whatever I could buy with leftover blood echoes after levelling up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalCaveman Posted January 9, 2020 Report Share Posted January 9, 2020 I haven't played the Old Hunters DLC, I should fix that soon. Bloodborne is one of my favourites, though I have no desire to get the platinum because I wasn't a fan of the Chalice Dungeons. One of my favourite moments was in Yahar'gul, doing some coop. Spoiler The boss shows up and the 3 of us were waiting with Ludwig's ready, dude didn't last more than a couple seconds. Also, the Celestial Emissary, that was a thing. Not directly related but I also like that FGO comic where Abby wanders into the world of Bloodborne and the Hunter is shown as this deranged monster that can't be killed. ...And now I really want to go back and continue my NG+ playthrough, maybe even get the DLC... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pojodin Posted January 9, 2020 Report Share Posted January 9, 2020 There was a boss in the chalice dungeon that kept glitching out on me to no end! Massive headless thing. The camera angles were rough, and I fell through the ground once somehow. After getting past him, it was smooth sailing to the plat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalCaveman Posted January 12, 2020 Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 Ace Combat 7 HELL YEAH! Couple of things I miss from AC6: Being able to modify you wingman's setup The CFA-44 Other than that, it was awesome, everything I wanted from a proper AC game. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpholt Posted January 15, 2020 Report Share Posted January 15, 2020 I tried to get into this game three times on XBOX. It didn't take until I stumped for it on PC around the time I heard Austin Walker list it as his favourite game of the year (and when he loves a game, he really fucking loves a game). Really glad I ended up giving it another look, because I think Outer Wilds may end up being one of my favourite games of all time, yeah!. It's been a week since I finished it, and I still spent a good chunk of my day just thinking about it. The game itself, the music, how it handles its world and what it's trying to say about the nature of life; deep shit you know? But also I think about the time I got to the final few minutes of the game and accidentally flew my floating tin-can of death into the Sun and I thought for twenty horrible seconds that I'd robbed myself of the games true ending because I wasn't paying attention. If you've not given this game a look, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Failing that, let Austin Walker tell you about it. Quote It is also a curse, because what I want more than anything else is to forget about Outer Wilds completely so that I can play it again from scratch - Austin Walker I grabbed Danielle the PS Move controllers for Christmas, and then Immediately went to the PS Store and bought this, you know.....for her. I really enjoyed it. Did I enjoy it as much as OG Superhot? Nah, but I think that might be more of a VR thing than a SuperhotVR thing you know? Turns out I don't necessarily want to get a sweat on when I'm playing games before work, or at any time really. I also had some rather annoying issues with tracking, but again I think that's down to the platform itself, and the fact that we don't live in one of those Kinnect/Peloton warehouse-houses that so many of our peers apparently live in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 15, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2020 13 hours ago, danielpholt said: I tried to get into this game three times on XBOX. It didn't take until I stumped for it on PC around the time I heard Austin Walker list it as his favourite game of the year (and when he loves a game, he really fucking loves a game). Really glad I ended up giving it another look, because I think Outer Wilds may end up being one of my favourite games of all time, yeah!. Out of curiosity, what changed? Why do you think you bounced off of it at first? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpholt Posted January 17, 2020 Report Share Posted January 17, 2020 On 1/15/2020 at 7:04 PM, TheMightyEthan said: Out of curiosity, what changed? Why do you think you bounced off of it at first? A few things, my headspace for one. I was much more willing to go along with the ride for the first few hours in my most recent attempt. The game sort of just drops you in and asks you to figure it out, which I'm not usually into. After completing it.... that view has totally changed. Outer Wilds needs to be as vague and at times frustrating otherwise it wouldn't hit the highs it does. Playing it on the PC (with a controller) probably made a difference too. I find it a much different experience when I'm playing on the consoles, I've got much less patience and to some extent if I'm not immediately invested I find myself grabbing my phone or leaving the game running. Can't really do that on my PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted January 18, 2020 Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 Luigi's Mansion 3 This game was delightful. Luigi himself only has a small handful of moves and abilities and you get most of them at the beginning, but the game cleverly finds new ways to utilize them for every floor that keeps it feeling fresh. For example, your vacuum will always use suction but on one floor you might use it to grab vines for swinging and on another you'll be using it to steer a boat. Each floor of the hotel has a different theme and is full of puzzles that can sometimes be tricky but not too difficult. The boss fights with the various ghosts are all quite unique and no two bosses ever really feel the same throughout the whole game, which is great. Luigi himself is ridiculously charming and lovable, jumping at every loud noise and trembling before every ghost yet always pushing ahead with his quest to save his friends even if he's timidly calling out for Mario the whole time. Top it off with a bunch of optional gems to find and a ghost hunting multiplayer mode and I can see myself coming back to this every now and then. I'm a sucker for ghostbusting gameplay and catching ghosts in this game feels great. Grabbing onto a ghost and slamming it into other ghosts who are suddenly afraid of Luigi after all their previous taunting and bullying is super satisfying. I can only really think of two criticisms. First, it isn't always apparent what you're supposed to do. Since every floor is different that means they're constantly expecting you to solve puzzles in different ways you haven't ever done before. You can usually figure it out yourself but on one occasion I had to consult a guide to find out that you're supposed to pull on a statue's arm to open a door even though I hadn't been doing anything with statues whatsoever for the past 8 hours. My second gripe is that the game can be a little too fond of pulling a bait and switch on you. The objective for each floor is to find an elevator button to get you to the next floor, but sometimes when you've beaten the boss and picked up the button the game will yank the rug out from under you to take the button away, forcing you to jump through more hoops to get the button back. It does this at least three times that I can remember, and by the last time I was yelling "Oh come on!" Even with those nitpicks I would still recommend this game to anybody with a Switch unless you just hate fun or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted January 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2020 Pokemon Sword I technically beat this, but there's a fairly substantial post-credits epilogue that I haven't finished yet. Overall I really enjoyed it. It was Pokemon, and it was on Switch, which was really all I wanted out of it. I know we already had Let's Go, but those games changed the way the wild encounters worked enough that, while I enjoyed them, they just weren't quite the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalCaveman Posted January 26, 2020 Report Share Posted January 26, 2020 Dark Souls 3 Four years late but I finally did it! \m/ \m/ Ended with: Strength: 60 Dex: 16 Vigor: 31 Endurance: 40 Vitality: 20 Using the heavy greatsword +10 I was able to beat most endgame bosses without much trouble, except for Spoiler The Twin Princes and the Nameless King For those I switched to shield + dragonslayer axe, and then to a magic build with crystal soul spear. I would like to try NG+ or get the DLC, but that'll have to wait, for now I'm going to start Horizon Zero dawn. \m/ \m/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpholt Posted January 27, 2020 Report Share Posted January 27, 2020 (edited) Virginia This is my second time around on this game, after having played it upon release way back in 2016. It's a short experience (emphasis on experience) that you could easily get through in one sitting of an two hours or so. Its a walking simulator its its purest form. You walk, very occasionally interact with things in the environment and spend an awful lot of time looking at the world, and trying to decipher just what exactly is going on. And whilst it certainly doesn't totally land on that front, I give the game a pass because its just so damn perfect everywhere else. The central plot isn't explained all that well (I've finished it twice now and even I'm like ????), and it goes off the deep end at one point (which would be okay if it was a little clearer as to what the fuck is happening), but even with those complaints I can't help but love the game. There's zero-dialogue, nothing, nadda, zilch. And whilst it doesn't always work in its favour, it really helps set the overall tone for the game, and that's the games biggest selling point. Virginia is all atmosphere. I've never played a game before where everything is edited together, almost like it would be in a movie. Lots of hard cuts from one scene to the next and I absolutely love that about it. Again not for everyone, but if you're into David Lynch or Twin Peaks and that sort of thing, it's certainly worth a look. Control Ended up really enjoying my time with Control. Its the best Star Wars game released in 2019 for sure. Is it without its flaws, nope. I have issues with the way the game handles checkpoints, it didn't always run terribly well on my OG PS4 and I feel like the games main plot dies away in a pretty sizable way about 2/3 of the way through, but everything else is fantastic. And by everything else I primarily mean the side missions, the games endless amount of collectable lore and the overall look of the game; it's absolutely stunning to look at. It's just a shame that the main plot was a bit of a damp squid, especially compared to some of the truly memorable side mission content. Give me more of that stuff all day long. Edited January 27, 2020 by danielpholt Control addition. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorgiShinobi Posted January 27, 2020 Report Share Posted January 27, 2020 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order I got the Platinum for the game, which isn't terribly hard, but requires endurance in trekking back to areas deep in a planet's map in a game with NO fast travel. Most times it's manageable, but Dathomir is a pain to backtrack if it requires going down to the lower swamp areas. Some trophies you'd think you'd get naturally, but the game can be cryptic. Like there's a giant toad enemy where you can cut off its tongue. Most people, including me, assumed this meant slowing down the toad when its tongue was out and slashing it with your lightsaber. That doesn't work. Instead, you just need to force pull the toad and his tongue pops off. Another is where this goat enemy is suppose to kick you and you kick back. However, most engagements the goat creature is always facing you. The only reliable way of getting behind the goat is after it charges and you hug its ass for the kick. Oh, and you can dodge the kick, just dodge one of his headbutts and kick and the trophy is yours. But that's all I have to complain about. The rest of the game is fun and challenging on Jedi Master difficulty. It's no Sekiro, but it's most certainly a positive addition to the Star Wars game library. All of the main characters are memorable, especially the true final boss of the game, Darth Vader! Quite literally "Current Objective: Survive." I went with a yellow kyber crystal since there wasn't a white one. I'll see about getting a screenshot of my final lightsaber. Most chests were simple enough to find if you desired to search, but some secrets and chests were super involved. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted February 6, 2020 Report Share Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) Fire Emblem: Three Houses So I know everyone hates Fire Emblem and Byleth right now but this might just be the best game in the series. I've only played a few of them but I feel pretty confident in that assessment. There's a ton of content and branching paths here and you don't have to buy the game three times to see it all (fuck you, Fates). Your choices, while they are few, actually matter to a significant degree and change the entire course of the story in wildly different ways. The students can be a little tropey, but I still couldn't help getting attached to most of them. Except for Hubert. Fuck Hubert. This game is quite clearly influenced by Persona with the new school system and time management mechanics, but it's not so similar that I would call it a total rip-off. I enjoyed that stuff in Persona anyway so I like it here too for the most part. There were some story beats that went unresolved, but I'm going to assume that playing the other routes will give me the full picture. When it comes to battling I really appreciate that they deemphasized the rock-paper-scissors weapon triangle. That was always my least favorite thing about the series next to the permadeath. It feels limiting, like you have to play a specific way if you want to get anywhere. It's not completely gone and certain weapons will still have an advantage over others, but it's not so huge that it forces you into a specific play style anymore. Speaking of permadeath, I turned it off. Yeah yeah, filthy casual, but I'm the kind of guy who will reload a whole battle and do it over again if someone dies until I get a result where someone doesn't die. I can't stand losing units because it means missing out on content, so I just cut out the middleman to save time. The new combat arts system kinda feels like an afterthought. I don't know if I was doing something wrong but after a while my regular attacks were doing more damage than my combat arts so I never had any reason to use them except for Bernadetta's long range archery skill. Even skills specifically meant to do extra damage to certain enemy types were somehow doing less damage. I found that very strange and I don't know why that was the case. I don't have any other major complaints about battles, though. The new battalion system is cool and it feels a little more balanced than Awakening did when you could pair up and steamroll over everybody. Battles in the first half of the game are still kind of easy though, at least on the normal difficulty. When there weren't any special objectives like defending a certain VIP or killing a specific enemy I often got by just fine on the auto-battle. Spoiler I went with the Black Eagles path because Rhea felt like a crazy bitch and fuck the church. God damn though, it sure made me miserable to slaughter all my former students. Some of these characters, despite not being in my class, I had gotten pretty fond of and having to kill them really stung. It almost sucked the fun out of the battles in part 2, knowing that more of them would be dying at my hand. Killing Flayn in front of her father was especially harsh. It felt awful but I'm pretty sure that's what the game was going for so mission accomplished. Oh, and I married Bernadetta at the end. I'm a sucker for the shy ones. I wasn't expecting to jump back into this game right away but with the New Game+ file I should be able to see the other paths without taking so much time so I'll probably replay it soon. Edited February 6, 2020 by Mister Jack 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted February 7, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 18 hours ago, Mister Jack said: So I know everyone hates Fire Emblem and Byleth right now but this might just be the best game in the series. What? Why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 @TheMightyEthan Byleth was announced as the last DLC character for Smash Bros season 1 character pass, making him/her the eighth Fire Emblem rep so far. People are especially sore because a while back Reggie had said all the paid fighters would be from unrepresented franchises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorgiShinobi Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 Byleth in Smash is so good. Maybe I should give Three Houses a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalCaveman Posted February 10, 2020 Report Share Posted February 10, 2020 DOOM (1993) I cleared all the way up to Inferno without much trouble, then I started Thy Flesh Consumed and... The level Perfect Hatred is just pure hate, I couldn't handle the trillion enemies in that place. Ended up enabling God Mode and getting through like that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted February 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2020 That must have been on your backlog for a while. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.