5
votes
What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
I've had a longgggg week filled with a bunch of random stresses and stuff like that, but the only constant I've had right now is Metaphor Refantazio. It's been really good and I've dumped about 60 hours in it this week.
It's funny, I don't really like anime but I'm a sucker for the Persona games. This game is that but so much more too, and I genuinely love the heavy handed story in general. I'm pretty much on the last couple hours of the game and I'm pretty happy with it!
I finally picked up Armored Core 6 last week, and have been messing around with it a bit. It seems quite fun, with a terrible story on top.
Now the Factorio dlc is out though, which changes everything..
I actually really enjoyed AC6's story. It's very simple, but I would not call it bad. Plus the voice acting is pretty fantastic.
I'm not too far in yet, maybe I judged it too soon!
I also didn't realize this, but you gotta play the game 3 times (New Game+ and ++) to get all the best story hits. And it's worth it!
Elite Dangerous: I just wanted to play a spaceship game. Installed. Loaded up initial tutorial. Follow commands and it's okay. Continue going through the other tutorials, on-screen key bindings frequently don't work. Haven't changed anything except graphics settings. Go to options to see if I can find the setting and bind it if it's missing.
Can't find any of the settings for the commands it's asking me to use.
Hit reset to default, exit game, restart.
Same thing.
Change to a controller, despite it being obvious that there's far fewer buttons on a controller than a keyboard.
Same thing.
UI and menu designs leave much to be desired, not worth the effort. Uninstalled.
Getting up to speed with Elite Dangerous is not trivial. I think they really failed at introducing people to systems, which is unfortunate. I say this as someone who loved the game, and played a lot. I ended up never getting my engineering fully up to date, and I never got good at dogfights.
It's unfortunate because the idea of the game is cool as hell, the exploration is awesome, and there's so much great about it. But they really screwed the pooch on introducing new players, and also the UI.
I don't mind a steep learning curve, but I have to draw the line somewhere and when the default layout both doesn't actually have the bindings it tells you to use in the tutorials and doesn't use the same naming in the keybinding settings to change it then that must be where the line exists for me.
Glad I got the game for free.
I also don't mind a steep learning curve, but I feel like the game gives most of the learning curve to not-in-the-game which I don't particularly like. And I think that the key binding stuff is also remarkably annoying. I feel like that tutorial came out with the game, and the UI has gone through some updates, and now it's not relevant, but maybe that's not it. Regardless - I have had nearly the exact same complaint
Started my second Persona 5R run, it is nice seeing all those stuff you missed when replaying. Combat also flows better because I actually understand team synergy now.
This week has been a bit of a bust for me.
I broke my rule for Early Access and picked up Cosmoteer which is actually pretty cool, but after 2 hours I wanted to play it coop and noone wanted to play it. So its now lost in the list of "to play" coop games with my friends.
I also picked up a new game called Drova. Its a really neat ARPG and I'm trying really hard to get into it with my Deck, but man I SUCK at Dark Souls dodge roll combat. It seems really good and I'm pretty driven to find out what's happening and explore the world, but the enemies are kicking my ass.
Lastly my friends bullied me into getting Factorio Space Age which I'm honestly not desperate to play, but I'll try it out if the gang all wants to play it.
I think it'll be a interesting experience to see what I post about next week!
Completed Hellblade II yesterday.
Visually, it's stunning. Probably the most photorealistic game I've played so far. More emphasis on story and walking this time - gameplay felt a bit lacking compared to Hellblade I. Also have to agree with another review I read that said the game rushed its ending in the final chapter.
I'm playing The Plucky Squire and while it is very charming I'm fairly lukewarm on it. Combat is really shallow, enemy variety is non-existent and the switch to 3d doesnt really do anything crazy. Its neat when you play the minigames but i feel like the novelty of those took away from the core gameplay. Like, the recent zelda gb remake was similarly charming and the combat was simple but i feel like the enemy variety and placement was much more thought out so it felt more fluid and fun.
Again though, it is a very cute game with great little characters and a couple of fun, memorable scenes. I think maybe a sequel would let them focus on stretching the mechanics rather than implementing the tech. Like, why does the book have to stay on the desk the whole time? Why not mid-bus ride or at the library and incorporate other book characters? I dunno, just feels a bit wasted. The Pedestrian did a really badass job of those 2d levels in a 3d environment type of thing.
Edit: also wtf is with the sword damage power up? It definitely doesnt do anything because the same enemies from the start of the game take the same amount of hits. Idgi
Been playing a load of Cyberpunk 2077; not really sure what I can say that hasn't already been said, but I'm enjoying myself and the stories it provides.
If I have one complaint it's that the world is pretty much completely lifeless: I loaded a save the other day and walk out of a shop only to see 4 of the exact same NPC within steps of each other as an example; another is a conversation with an NPC in a Ramen shop and looking at the other NPC's that just sit in one spot and play the same canned animation repeatedly while the people "taking orders" just stand behind the counter doing the same. I don't necessarily mind this in most RPGs, but in Cyberpunk it just feels weird given the general detail of the world, as well as feeling kind of lazy, considering 20-years ago Gothic had NPC's with routines and schedules, places of work, homes, etc, etc. Granted, they were simulating a lot fewer NPC's, but it seems like Cyberpunk ought to have had the resources to do a little bit more with the NPC's local to the player so that things don't feel so dead.
In spite of my complaints, I actually am enjoying myself; focusing on doing quest after quest has made everything so much better than simply wandering around the world.
Today, I downloaded a demo for this game: Erenshor, weird as it sounds, it's a "Single Player MMORPG". It simulates other players who you can group and trade with, while feeling like Everquest (using a similar interface and playing similarly) back in 1999, except much faster both in general gameplay and leveling. You absolutely need to group to do some things and it's nice to basically be able to just call NPC's to you and group with them (though not all of them are willing to group with you.) I spent about 3-hours with the demo today and am enjoying myself quite a lot; looking forward to a full release or even just Early Access, as I think I'm going to run out of demo stuff to do pretty quickly, though I may start new characters...