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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.
Sunk another entirely too many hours into Vintage Story and while I am much better established and have almost made it through my first winter relatively smoothly, I still have a number of things to complete, especially once it gets warm enough to actually grow crops again. In the past week, I've managed to:
Build a decently large greenhouse to extend the growing and harvesting seasons for my crops
Build a large windmill using a metric ton of flax linen to power my pulverizer, quern, grindstone, and helve hammer
Put together a full gambeson armor set (again out of a ton of linen)
Build a sailboat, which is a massive upgrade over the raft I was using before
Switch from stews to pies as my primary food source (pies are cool)
Upgrade from bronze to iron tools
Produce a lot of leather, enough to equip myself with multiple leather backpacks for more inventory space
The goals I'm aiming to achieve this week are:
Finding a biome with a limestone layer so I can mass produce mortar
Constructing a cementation furnace to begin steel production (which will take a lot of mortar)
Setting up a basic apiary once it's warm enough for the bees to come out
Capturing some chickens and goats for domestication
Beginning a berry/fruit farm for additional food and winemaking
Making a full set of iron chainmail
One of these days I plan to pick up Vintage Story! Maybe as a birthday present to myself next year. Every time I see people play it or when an update comes out it makes me want to pull the trigger.
I have been replaying Megaman ZX. Its probably my favorite of the Megaman games.
ZX is the 4th set of games in the timeline, starting with the Megaman games, followed by a timeskip to the Megaman X games, followed by another timeskip to the Megaman Zero games, and now yet another timeskip to the Megaman ZX era. I always enjoyed seeing how the world changes in these different eras.
Megaman ZX introduces the concept of "biometals", where the main and supporting cast of the Megaman Zero games have been refactored into this new type of nanotech alloy that contains their cyber elves, or their "spirit", allowing them to fuse with humans as a robot exoskeleton, so the main character can transform into X, Zero, Harpuia, Fefnir, Leviathan, Phantom, or Omega from the Zero games. The different form changes are an interesting change from the old ability-copying mechanic. I think its a nice change, as in older games I would often unlock new abilities and never use them due to ammo limits and generally being less useful than the X buster. But here each form has some legiminate use case.
Z form has Zeros saber and gun combo, which is a good all rounder. X form has just the blaster, which means charging both attack buttons gives you a double shot, which is a nice way to differentiate X from Zero. Harpuia has a versitile air dash that gives mobility. Leviathan can freely move in water. Fefnir is not often used but is the only form that can fire straight upwards. Phantom has invincibility on his dash when overdrive is active. And Omega carries over some of Zeros Megaman X abilities. There is at least one point in the game where Im happy to have each one.
Megaman ZX expands on the change they started in Zero where rather than having a static set of distinct stages, its more of a Metroidvania where all maps are connected to one another and you can freely move wherever you want, other than keylocked doors. One of the major criticisms of the game is that the map is confusing as hell, and its often difficult to figure out where your assignments are. Like, your mission might be to go to the old amusement park, and the quest log will give you a hint that its in are L or something, but the map doesnt show you which areas connect to L until you have found it, and areas are not intuitively laid out.
The art and music is pretty on point. Most of the tracks are a bop to listen to, and I really enjoy the backdrops they use for each of the levels. Its pretty understated for the most part, but some of the last levels where you see warships dropping missiles on the city in the background is really well done.
The art style of the city and machines have a unique feel to them. Lots of neon strips and techno stuff, but mixed with some more organic aesthetic elements that make it less sterile feeling than brutalism can sometimes be.
I also love the worldbuilding you can see where the whole planet seems to slowly be hybridizing into a cyborg state. Just roamind around in the forest area you can see that the very trees and earth show panelling and wires within them, which is very fitting with the whole "biometals merging reploids with humans".
Its also cool to see the change in how reploids have become pretty normalized in society, in contrast to the oppression they faced in Zero.
One criticism I will give the game is that the story is kind of a weird bridge between series. The overarching plot ends up being a consequence of the end of Megaman Zero 4, so if you played that game it will make sense but if you didnt it will feel kind of random. However the following game kind of seems to retcon some bits of the story, and that series was never finished, so the whole game kind of feels detached from the franchise as a whole.
Still though, I think this is one of the best games in terms of balancing. There are not many situations where it feels like the game laid out enemies in unavoidable positions, and there is only 1 platforming section thats egregiously annoying, and an optional one at that. The final boss is pretty good too, I like the way that Serpent's attacks are designed to make you stay at a particular range of engagement. The final Model W fight is not the best ever, but its servicable and I like the setpiece.
Overall, highly recommended if you like Megaman games.
Mina the Hollower: I'm not that far in, but holy heck is it good. I expected/hoped for something like Legend of Zelda in world design and gameplay, and got "Shigeru Miyamoto's Dark Souls." Having just finished Shovel Knight, the difficulty is similar, it's irritating and frustrating, but sorta low-stakes. The boss fights cost me all my bones each time, but I'm still having fun.
I didn't get to game as much as I wanted this week for reasons and sat down to Mina the Hollower. Holy hell is it hard. It's definitely dark-soulsy, rather punishing, and I spent about three hours tonight trying to progress. The game's starting to click, but i'm a little worried as somebody who tends to bounce off Dark Souls. I'll see how it goes when I progress more, as I finally got to the area around the first indicated temple.
I'd been trying my best to emulate Hotel Dusk on a couple of my handhelds (notebly the RG Slide and Retroid Pocket Classic), but neither could quite do it right. On the Slide, I could rotate the screen and controls and it looked really good, but the only emulator that let me do that would crackle the audio and have slowdowns frequently. On the RPC, I couldn't get the stylus/touch controls to work properly and all of it just turned into this endless tinkering.
So I cracked out my DSi XL instead and actually ended up playing a ton of Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, which I last played at the time of release on DS.
It's been an awesome fit for where I'm at right now. When it originally came out, I was probably like 25 and enjoyed it, but didn't really appreciate it much. This time, I'm really taking my time and savoring it; doing all the puzzle challenges. Yesterday I must have spent about an hour (throughout the day, not in one sitting) on a single puzzle, just trying to figure out what the hell to do before I finally discovered the solution right as I was lying in bed and about the shut out the light.
I'm not sure what else to say about this one, other than it's a great little puzzle game and I'm loving it. Been carrying my DSi everywhere with me in the last couple of days. I really loved the DS back in the day and it's still one of my favorite consoles now.
After having terrible luck and failing to win it in multiple giveaways, I finally got my hands on Sable some time ago for a very generous (75%!) discount.
Sable is a young woman who, having just come of age, is sent by her nomadic tribe on her Gliding, which is immediately clear is a journey, or time period if you prefer, during which, having no obligations, she is to go out into the world on her own, experience things, and decide who she wants to be. And that's the whole premise of this game - it's an open world exploration game with all sorts of things to do, but no single, mandated goal. The player is vaguely told to procure badges related to various tasks, and every three badges of the same type can be traded in for a mask representing that trade or specialty. Very Scout-like! At the end of the game any masks you have claimed are presented as options for your final choice of Sable's new trade. It's your own decision when to go and end the game, the option becoming available once you have a mere three masks.
The aesthetic of the game is fantastic. The vibe is very Moebius combined with a Scavenger's Reign like cel shaded art style, complete with a full day-night cycle, shadows and indoor/outdoor lighting. It becomes very quickly evident that you are not on Earth, but on a barely terraformed desert planet. Everybody wears masks, not just for cultural reasons, but because the air isn't quite breathable to humans (one of the things you can choose to do during your Gliding is collect logs from various crashed ships that paint a better picture of why people are even there). The fauna and flora are vaguely familiar, but clearly alien. There is also a mystical (or at least mysterious?) component, seemingly tied to remains of a previous, long-gone civilization that people have integrated into their lives. This is mostly present in Sable's Gliding Stone, an artifact that allows her to temporarily, well, glide - fall slowly and safely - and her hoverbike Simoon, a customizable vehicle with a mind of her own that at times behaves more like a horse than a machine (you can whistle for it!)
Sable's world may be mostly a desert, but it's far from uniform. Various regions contain different biomes with distinct topography, geology, plants and colors, which your CPU and GPU both will work surprisingly hard to make look cool for you, for how flat the shading (deliberately) is. They are accompanied by simple but well suited soundscapes to help sell the vibe. There is a pretty good photo mode, although unfortunately they forgot to include a way to move Sable off the center of the view. What about the rule of thirds, devs? Some of these biomes are extremely craggy, so it's fortunate that one of the game's most important systems is the climbing system. It's like Breath of the Wild, where you can climb almost everything, limited only by your stamina. There is a way to increase your stamina, though, unlocking access to loftier peaks, and it's very satisfying once you're able to perform long, complicated climbs to get to the tops of very tall things!
I want to shout out two more things. First, the (written) dialogue, while often terse, does have a fairly good sense of humor that imparts personality upon Sable (and some other characters). Second, I quite liked riding the hoverbike. Its physics are very unstable, but in a fun way. And the game's framerate struggles all the harder when you're moving faster across the world, but there's something special about being able to shoot up a dune, fly onto the side of a mountain while your ride neighs like a panicked horse, and then hop off it, letting it drop like the most betrayed of Yoshis while you cling to the cliffside and leverage your limited stamina to complete a climb that would otherwise be impossible.
One thing I felt about the game was that it doesn't quite manage to sell its own promise of scale. Now, I'm not talking about the size of its 3D world, which was just right - videogames need to balance size with player boredom and it already does have some pretty empty regions as it is; I've availed myself of the extremely generous fast travel system without hesitation. It's just the implementation doesn't quite gel with the world building, in a way that's understandable but a little disappointing. Sable is the only glider at the time; you won't meet others. It doesn't make sense that some of the things she does haven't been done by others before. There is a job of Merchant, but who are they even trading with? All other jobs will trade and barter with Sable, and the population is pretty low. At one point Sable has to deal with a thief and saboteur, but their actions make no sense in such a small community - you can't steal the power source of a third of the world's population and then expect to sell it without being caught! There are like a hundred boarded up buildings while many people are living on permanent tents - why? And who built those buildings? And many other such details. I think this setup could have made for a fantastic AAA game with a richer world, if people actually were willing to pay for games like this, but no guns means no interest I guess.
Another problem was jank. Here's a non-exhaustive list of issues I ran into while playing Sable:
Just for fun
I put that in a collapsible block because in the end, who cares? I kinda loved the game, despite its limitations. It had a lot of heart and style, and I'm happy to have played it. I finished every quest (that I found), collected every mask (probably) and maxed out my stamina in 24 hours of game time as measured by Steam. I did not find every fish or acquire every item of clothing and hoverbike part.
Previous
This game came to my attention recently when I saw it in a list of "Solarpunk"-esque games, so when I saw your comment I decided to pick the game up yesterday.
I like it. Its got a "Shadow of the Colossus, but just the collecting fruit and lizards" vibe.
I got the game for PS5, and the game performance limitations are noticable. When the framerate is high then gliding around the map is really nice and atmospheric, but more often than not its pretty choppy. Its not a huge problem though, since theres not much fast paced action to react to.
I am a bit torn on the art style. I think the MS Paint aesthetic works at times and looks cool, but Im not crazy about the color pallettes. Turning on high visibility mode helped with that, but at the cost of the few times where the screen gets all monotone like getting a new mask.
Im enjoying the exploration aspect of the game. Looking forward to seeing what else there is to find.
Oh, I quite liked the color palettes!
The colors turn monotone the closer you are to "pitch darkness". If you go into the mask shaper's hut while the daytime sun is shining on it, it should be colorful (I've observed).
If you turn on photo mode, which oddly must be turned on in the settings first before becoming available using D-pad up (at least on PC), there's a slider for that effect in there IIRC. You can't use it while moving around but at least you can take a better look at a specific scene if you need.
Yeah, I noticed that. It makes for some good moments with the change of contrast. Sometimes going from really high to low or vice versa makes a striking visual effect in some scenes. Its more when Im just out in the desert and my character is all faded out and beige that I didnt care for. Ill try that photo mode option.
I picked up Path of Exile 2 last night since it was a free play weekend. It's Early Access, and currently 50% off on Steam for US$14.99. I tried the first Path with friends back in 2019, and it was OK. But the whole character building thing was daunting, as was having to read multi-page build guides when I barely knew what I was doing was off-putting. So I didn't play it much and never went back.
However, friends who are already playing Path 2 say it's much more forgiving this time around, and build guides aren't as necessary. I can't screw up from the get-go. So I decided to give it a try. I chose Ranger.
I haven't played any Diablo game for many, many years. Last one I played was D3 when it came out (only did one playthrough on Normal). But this definitely awoke some nostalgia. Went ahead and bought it. Still super early in the game, don't quite know what I'm doing, but I'm willing to learn.
From the Backlog Burner event, still playing Halfway, Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane, The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy, and Coffee Talk Tokyo.
So I was babysitting my nephew & niece today. 5 & 6 years old for context. I decided to buy the new Yoshi game, as it is difficult to keep a 5-6 year old entertained all day, while doing other things.
So we played it together and I have a few thoughts.
1.) This game is difficult for kids mostly due to the reading comprehension level. The 5-6 year old was not going to read all of that. That portion is a puzzling design choice by Nintendo. I get that Nintendo wants you to read the game to the child, like a story book. But the hints and language is not the language that would be in a young person's book.
2.) Gameplay is very good. It seems like this is mixture of a child and streamlined Gary's Mod, Sonic the Hedgehog 1, and puzzle game. I know this sounds bizarre. Just suspend disbelief for a moment.
A.) The puzzles on some levels will have childish physics that will be a reaction akin to Gary's Mod.
B.) Yoshi in slow motion moves just like how Sonic moves in Sonic 1 on Sega Genesis, when you are exploring. Very similar feel between both of the games.
This game is a unique concept that rewards exploration even if you get hit by enemies. Because you are looking past the enemies and looking at the puzzles. Which imo, is why there is not a life bar.
3.) The game looks and animates very well. Pretty game.
4.) The most PUZZLING thing in this game. The controls. It uses four or five different buttons throughout the gameplay loop. This is not something a child would be able to do. I am surprised it was not a three button game. We completed the first two chapters in under two hours.
5.) The game is easy to beat levels but challenging to beat at 100%. They make you REALLY work for it. Each chapter is less than an hour, if you are not going for 100%.
Final thoughts: This is a very cute game that should not be missed with smaller children. There is enjoyment for the adult as well, trying to help 100% the game. This game is probably $10 too much. I think $49.99/$59.99 would have been a better pricing structure for this game. This game is definitely more fun for $70 than Mario Wonder Bellabel Park edition with young children. I wasn't a big fan of the minigames in the Bellabel Park portion of the game.
Honestly, it terms of "fun factor" this is probably a top 6 Switch 2 first party title (at this time). The creativity trying to solve the more difficult puzzles, is very cozy and yet it is engaging. As always continuing theme, it would appear Nintendo marketing did not convey properly what this game was exactly. Just like Mario Tennis.
Currently a top 6 first party Switch 2 title. (For a few months anyway). Yoshi sits with Mario Kart, DK Bonanza, BoTW, Pokopia, and Mario Tennis.
Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball
A "hidden gem" is an overused trope by gamers looking to find the missing unicorn of an amazing, unique gameplay experience they've never experienced before. Friends, that trope has manifested itself with Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball, a point made invariably true by the simple fact that this hidden game does not want to be discovered.
This game contains many red flags that many gamers are sure to stay clear of:
From the screenshots alone, you can already hear the complaints: "virtually unplayable", "looks like a PS1 game", "gay". It's received a review score of 4.5/10. But these "warning signs" are all there by design, and if you are able to get past them, and are patient enough, you may discover a game that nicely subverts all any expectations you had for it. Just as you can't judge a book by its cover, you're most liable to find a hidden gen when you're not looking for it.
If you are looking to challenge yourself with a unique gaming experience, don't read any further and go play it for yourself. It's on Steam or, if you're registered to Humble Bundle as so many of us are for this month, you can play it for free in the Humble Vault. It's also relatively short, about three hours. At some point, you'll be wondering to yourself why you are doing this. Just do your best to be open and try to see beyond the game as you're playing.
Important Note: Despite what the title says, there is NO frontal nudity in this game. None. You'll see pixelated representations of old naked men, but no hang dong to hang you up. If you don't believe me, take it from this review from Christ Centered Gamer who gave it a nearly perfect score for (a lack of) sexual content.
Some spoilers ahead
This is one of the truest expressions of an emotionally stunted man I've ever seen in my life, certainly in a videogame. It's so weird to say that, and even if you take me at my word, you would never be able to make the connection. This circles back to the "this game *wants* to be a hidden gem" idea; for you to experience the truth of this game, you need to set aside your own prejudices. It's a challenge, perhaps a video game challenge more difficult than any *Dark Souls* game because people simply aren't ready to hear its message. It's too raw. It cuts too deep. You need to go through the gauntlet that this game throws down before emerging **Shawshank Redemption** style on the other end.Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball has terrible gameplay. You can barely see the ball, and when you are able to track it by its shadow, you're not able to get there in time. If on the small chance you are able to get in position and return the ball, it goes straight into the net or out of bounds. Most tellingly, the perspective shifts to the opponent during serves, meaning you have less than a second to track the ball, get into position and return it. This is all rage-inducing, throw-your-controller-at-the-wall levels of unfairness. But it's all by design. Same with its terrible graphics; it's supposed to look that way, because the purpose it serves is one other than being the next pixel-bleeding AAA game for your tricked out battlestation.
This game is a VN disguised as a sports game. It's amateur by design. You're not supposed to win any of the games (I sure didn't, giving me a 0-5 lifetime record in the Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball League). That's because win or lose, the real magic happens between the protagonist and the opponent. I won't reveal who the opponents are, but as you play it becomes really clear that people don't talk this way, especially people who supposedly don't know each other.
I suspect that when I gush over a game, readers will build up my recommendation to have some kind of parallel with a 10/10 IGN rating, but no. For the third time, this game is designed to be bad and look bad, so that means, literally speaking, it is bad. That means that I am recommending a bad game, but by playing this, you'll come out of it by having a good experience. A unique one, really, and to be honest, the most emotional experience I've had in video games this year since Still There.
It's a lot like Doki Doki Literature Club in that you should go in knowing as little as possible, which is why I'm still trying to keep this write-up on the coy side. In some ways, they're both equally punishing, but Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball remains the more liberating, optimistic one.
At this point, some of you may still be thinking, come on, this is all bullshit, in what world could a game with this title and look like this be about men's inability to emotionally express themselves? But then think about it: men live their entire lives hiding their feelings, ashamed to open up to anyone lest they be mocked for being weak, something reaffirmed by a man whose business will be hosted on the White House lawn this month. That's years of repressed emotion, feelings of regret and sorrow and anguish that had nowhere to go. And then, one day, a crack appears in the dam. Something is finally getting through. And the thing about cracks in a dam is that they can appear anywhere, and for our metaphor, be about anything.
Yes, Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball is ridiculous. It doesn't seem to make any sense. But Brokeback Mountain ended with
spoiler
a man dancing with a shirt
I'll just say it: Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball is the most beautiful game I've played. Ever. Because beauty isn't skin deep, and neither is it with video games and graphics.
Final tip: Upon finishing the game, exit to the home screen, and from there press "Exit". Don't close the game by other means, like via the Steam menu or F4 or whatever.
I recently reinstalled Heroes of the Storm after earning a temp suspension from League of Legends, following a string of Ranked losses where I tried to play Quinn Jungle (she recently got buffed two patches in a row) but had inters sabotage my matches, provoke me into flaming them by being assholes, then maliciously mass-report me when I understandably got heated at them.
When I say "sabotage", we're talking:
Sent an "appeal" to the ban which was more-so a complaint about three particular players that stood out for their flagrant inting, where I quoted game IDs and match timestamps of what occurred. Been over a day (and counting) and I'm still waiting on Riot's customer support to respond to my ticket, and I doubt they will take it seriously, but if they claim they'll escalate the matter then I look into the players' match histories and find they're still active, I'll know they're completely full of crap.
Yes, I know I was out of line and probably deserved the suspension, but I don't think it's fair that Riot allow players to sabotage matches with utter impunity whilst they target chat offences like the low-hanging fruit they are.
Heroes is one of those games I used to really like before Blizzard completely and utterly abandoned it. I mean the game still gets balance updates but it hasn't had a new content patch or hero release since 2020. After three ranked matches (two losses, one win, and both losses in games where I was practically doing top DPS as a tank.) And sadly, I think the inting problem in that game is 50 times worse.
I think maybe playing solo queue MOBAs is making me a worse person.
Mina the Hollower is another game I played for a bit. It has some problems. Combat feels incredibly clunky and that's probably because I chose the flail as my weapon which not only has a significant attack delay but also can only be swung in four directions. The game also has no map whatsoever and gives incredibly vague hints on where you need to go next.
Kinda wish that Yacht Club didn't make this game a Soulslike.
I had the same realization years ago. The best time to drop a MOBA was yesterday. The next best is today!
Preach
I solo queued MOBAs (DotA Allstars and eventually DotA 2 briefly) for 10+ years. MOBA as a genre was just exploding when I decided to quit cold turkey and my life improved significantly as a result.
Some guys at work tried to get me to play with them when the mobile MOBAs started to come out and I flat out refused every time. I'm not relapsing on that shit.
Yeah I had no friends interested in playing DotA2 with me so I rocked solo for a long time. One day I found myself alone, in my apartment, yelling at randoms on the internet (not the first time) and just decided I was done. It's like a bad drug.
To be honest after the reply I just got from Player Support, I think I want to channel my frustration into something a bit more creative and damning.
I'm genuinely thinking about creating a blog where I openly document, catalogue and call out the actions of inting players and Riot's downright incompetence at punishing them. Not because I'm chasing down any kind of virality or Internet clout but to actually.
Or it could be a video series. Disco Heat did something similar with League of Children many years ago but my idea would be more like in-depth replay analysis, manually raising tickets with Customer Support, keeping tabs on reported players' OP.gg match histories to ensure Riot aren't just full of crap.
I think you’re expecting a lot more of Riot than they have ever promised. You have to remember that every player they ban is a revenue source they have cut themselves off from.
Consider your own experience — you have already conceded that they were right in throwing a suspension your way, and that your frustration is that other players aren’t also being similarly punished. From some other players perspective, I’m sure there’s someone out there who has seen your behaviour and is lamenting they didn’t go far enough, and that you should have been suspended for the whole season or permanently.
Just consider, if you’re asking for Riot to tighten up their enforcement of the rules, is there a chance that you yourself be caught up in that same net? And if the answer is yes, consider if maybe you might use this revelation to review the behaviour of the only player whose behaviour you can control: your own.
At this point I think I just want to publicly humiliate Riot Games. I'm already three matches into this experiment (my suspension expired two days ago) and I've seen some absolutely shocking things.
Child of Light - it is over a decade old Ubisoft game which likely was an attempt to capture some the same market as indie games of the time.
It is basically a whimsical fairytale told in a rhyme and with good artwork.
The combat system is actually good blend of turn based and real time with every character taking an interruptible action of varying length with subsequent cooldown. The actions take place simultaneously and can be affected by player.
What I really like is that the combat is trivially skippable except for bosses. It still means it is needed to engage in it to be able to pass them but it is significant improvement on games forcing a meaningless encounter every five minutes.
On the other hand it features cosmetic DLCs, Ubisoft shenanigans and seems about two thirds of the actual planned length.
Yeah, you can always rely on Ubisoft to get wrong as much as they possibly can, but nevertheless they will once in a while release an interesting game or other. They are the most infuriating AAA studio(s). The others at least have the decency of being easy to ignore.
I have been playing emulated PS2 games using the PCSX2 emulator. Been playing on Linux, and it was simple to install. I grabbed my old PS2 controllers from my parents' place, and picked up a USB adapter for PS2 controllers. I have been pleased with how simple of a setup it has been, as well as how smoothly the games have run. I have been playing two games primarily so far, with the plans to go through my whole childhood gaming catalog:
Ratchet & Clank
Growing up, we had the first four games. I was too young to be able to get through the first three games, although I did try. The first Ratchet & Clank game I beat as a kid was Ratchet Deadlocked, since it had difficulty options. When I got older, I never returned to try and beat the first three, so this is my first time playing it through.
Overall, the first game has held up pretty good to modern standards. Due to the art style, the graphics do not look that dated (although it is 4:3 aspect ratio). The gameplay has been quite fun, with the occasional challenging portion, but nothing has stumped me that much. Normally by about the fifth attempt, I have figured out a strategy to get past a hard portion. With it being the first game in the series, there are a few minor mechanics that have not been polished yet, like the weapon wheel does not pause the game. I am also impressed on how well the first game has set the tone of the franchise, and established a lot of the core mechanics that carry through the rest of the franchise. I am looking forward to beating this game, so that I can continue on with the others in the franchise.
Gran Tourismo 3
Honestly, this game was not one that I was expecting to get into as much as I have. The graphics do feel a bit more dated, since the style is trying to be realistic. Also, some of the higher end cars in the game have lost their cool factor, since they are now 25 year old cars, and not the top of the line cars they were when the game was released.
Gameplay has a lot more depth in this game than I was expecting. Cars handle differently based on what type of drivetrain they have. Tuning of cars is quite detailed, and you do need to understand cars a bit to understand how to properly tune your cars (something I have been struggling with). It is not just a "buy this upgrade to improve X", but instead you can dial in a lot of things, including your gear ratio, ride height, and camber. The racing itself has been quite fun, with a lot of things to manage at once if you are running manual gearbox (something I have just started doing). The driving challenges to get different racing licenses are tough, but do teach a lot.
Overall thoughts
I have quite enjoyed playing my PS2 childhood catalog, and do look forward to continuing through the rest of them. I still have tons of games to go through, and once I finish those, I will consider even expanding to games that I did not own, but have heard good things about
If you ever finish all your old catalog and are looking for new additions, consider trying the Jak trilogy. Ive heard it said that the games, particularly the latter two, are similar to Rachet and Clank, although I cant confirm since I havent played those.
But they are some of the best games of the PS2 era in my opinion. The core trilogy is a great story and the spinoff Jak X is a really fun kart racer.
I remember playing a Jak and Dexter game for my PSP years ago at the recommendation of a friend. Once I get through my nostalgic catalog, I will check out that trilogy
Still on Tales of Arise, which I love more and more.
Also deleted my 150+ hour save game on Pokopium. lol I couldn’t take it anymore.
The blank canvas feels so good. Now that I know how all the mechanics work, I know exactly how I want to play and not mess up the landscape so I don’t get annoyed again. I’m also “catching” them all much quicker. Of course. Took me only one afternoon to get like a couple dozen of them and finish the first area.
I’m going for reconstruction of the environment, as close to what it seems to me that the environment looked like as I can.
What's your favorite part of Tales of Arise? Don't really know much about it, but still bought a few years back on a whim, on sale, but still haven't played it. Been prioritizing other JRPGs lately (Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure). FWIW, the only Tales Of game that I've put significant time into was Tales of Graces F.
But I have been eyeing it lately. At least to start.
The story and the combat mostly.
I have to be honest, it’s my first action JRPG, but I’ve been loving it to death.
I've been playing a ton of Riftbound recently, maybe about once a week or so. Been trying to get a Pyke deck working without looking at the established decklists, I really want to just play the Bewitching Spirit and Mindsplitter package, but I need to figure out how to deal with a bunch of other things. It's been really fun though and I've been enjoying the community in NYC!
I've been really enjoying the new path of exile 2 league! They really cooked with the 0.5 update especially the endgame
I have been playing Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core. My oldest son and I have played quite a bit of the original DRG, and he has been anticipating the release of Rogue Core to early access. I'm not usually a fan of roguelikes/lites, but the combination of the in-universe story, the team mechanics, and my son's excitement compelled me to try it.
The TLDR is that I've been having a ton of fun! For the past few days I've found myself wanting to play whenever I have free time.
The game shares some lore with DRG, but it's very different. It should not be considered a DRG 2. Anyone going in with this idea will surely come away disappointed and frustrated. It's much more of a fast paced team roguelite in DRG packaging. The rounds are much more intense than DRG at a base level, and there is a timer that creates a sense of urgency. If you are familiar with DRG gameplay, I would describe the early game experience as this: a Hazard 3 Deep Dive, but you only get to pick your perks and cosmetics before the run. All weapons, upgrades, and overclocks are gathered along the way.
This is still a bit reductive, as again, it's not a sequel to DRG. But It does give you a bit of an idea what to expect.
It has 5 new classes to play, and they all have new unique passive and active abilities. A few of the classic DRG weapons and mobility items make a reappearance, but this time they are not locked to class.
The reviews of the game so far are very mixed. There is a ton of complaining online about the mission timer and the shared upgrade negotiations. I would highly recommend ignoring the reviews, though. In my experience, many of these complaints have been overblown. The game definitely needs polish and balancing before it leaves early access, but at its core (ha) it is a very fun and engaging experience. I'm not sure what else to say about it, but I am more than happy to answer any questions.
Edit: Also, this is unrelated to the gameplay itself, but I love the intro sequence to the game so so much. It's like they extracted the best parts of the intros to The Thing, Alien, and Metroid Prime and smushed them together into one glorious sequence. I refuse to turn it off or skip it when I start up the game. :D
Ghost Ship Games seems to have launched into early access to try and figure things out along the way towards 1.1 and through no fault of their own, people seem to have the idea that it's a damn crime that it's not at the level of the by now YEARS old DRG.
I agree, the reviews seem to be from people annoyed that it isn't DRG 2, while also expecting an early access game to be as good as the predecessor out of the gate. It's unreasonable and few reviews have any merit.
I’ve played a lot of Risk of Rain 2, so the timer and escalating challenge wasn’t an issue for me, but I’m definitely still struggling with it. I’ve only got one other friend who has it, so basically 100% of my gameplay has been 2-player runs. We’re not god gamers, but we’re also certainly not amateurs, so I expected a decent challenge going in, and didn’t expect to win in our early runs. That said, I also didn’t expect us to confidently make it to the boss at the bottom and then promptly run out of ammo before the second orb, several runs in a row.
Maybe it is just a skill issue, that we should be optimising our runs more, but I feel like the ammo mechanic doesn’t add to the game. Or fall damage, for that matter, but that’s a hill I’ve been willing to die on for some time — fall damage rarely improves a game and feels like a cheap way for game developers to reduce player movement and exploration.
I've heard a few people say that the "cushion" enhancement is a must even though it seems like others would be more desirable. I'm personally not having any trouble with ammo, but I main retcon so I know I'm a special case. :D. FWIW, GSG is planning to address ammo economy as well as a bunch of other stuff in the next release later this month.
LMK if you want to try to connect in game. My son and I play almost every night (US Pacific timezone), and it would be cool to have a regular group of 4.
Edit: I just got an upgrade in my run this evening that converts fall damage to a slam attack. That was pretty fun.
I booted up Divinity Original Sin 2: Definitive Edition after leaving it sat in my library untouched for months. I played DOS2 shortly after release, having been very excited by Larian's teasers. This game holds up so well. The world and character design is second to none and I adore the strategic and varied combat. I also love that it allows you to respec your characters without penalty, which stops me from my usual endless rerolling cycle I fall into in games with this much customization.
I really need to pick Baldurs Gate 3 back up. I was having a blast with that, but having nearly finished Act 1 I just got bored in the underworld and haven't touched it in well over a year now. I think I've stopped literally at the point I'd just need to walk out of Act 1 now to progress.
The latest finished game for me is God of War Ragnarok, and the Valhalla DLC.
I really enjoyed the 2018 game so was looking forward to getting stuck into this one. Whilst I did enjoy it to the point I took on and finished the various optional challenges, I do think the pacing wasn't quite as strong compared to how the previous one sits in my memory.
The Valhalla DLC is a little rogue like mode, that feels like it works well within the broader God of War Norse game combat formula.
Given the ending of this and Ragnarok it'll be interesting to see where they take the series going forwards outside of rumoured games set between the two periods.