What Are You Playing?

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
I liked that the primary challenge was whether you would save your crew.

In theory it"s great, yeah. But given that they essentially wrote Wrex (the best sidekick) out of the story because it would have been too complex to integrate his life/death in the sequels, well... That should let you know what to expect in ME3. His and Liara's demotion to mere cameos is the irredeemable sin of ME2 to me, with the tepid final boss a distant second.

I only lost one member (Tali) and enjoyed a happy romance with Garrus. It was much more challenging, which I really enjoyed as an extension of ME1 (more of a big expansion pack than a standalone game). On to ME3.

Awww, poor Tali. I got everyone out myself back in the day. It's funny what you say about the difficulty though, because that's definitely not how I remember it. They must have really gimped ME1 to make sure people didn't give up. Anyway, enjoy ME3!
 
So, God of War: Ragnarok...72 hours and I have 100%-ed the game. It was quite the ride; I enjoyed it a lot despite its frustrations, which were big ones. TLDR for below, I would give it a good 8/10 if asked to score.

So, first, the obvious: the game is gorgeous. I'm a console peasant, so this is, so far, the prettiest game I've ever played. AND it ran smoothly on top too! It's like my eyes were doing it inside my skull. Pure eye-candy, this game. As a technical achievement, they really outdid themselves here. There were, however, some hiccups along the way: the occasional frame-drop, for example. Some facial animations were a bit stiff too, unless we're supposed to be dealing with folks who've had their facial muscles frozen by Fimbulwinter. But overall, the game is outstanding.

Gameplay is largely the same as the 2018 predecessor, with some improvements and tweaks here and there. It's the same mix of combat, boating (and sledding), exploration, and the occasional puzzle.

Speaking of puzzles first, this game treats you like you're an absolute moron, by the way. No sooner than you're into a puzzle area than one of the NPCs starts blabbering about the solution. Their "hints", which are simply spoilers at times, just render the puzzle aspect of the game pointless. The puzzles themselves weren't anything special anyway. We're at a far cry from the challenging (iirc) puzzles of the original trilogy.

As for combat, well it's really, really good. The options you have, from weapons to combos to runic-attacks, just make it one of the most entertaining and intense action games out there. GoW has always delivered on this front, so this comes as little surprise. I'm not a particularly gifted player when it comes to creating combos, so I usually don't bother doing so in most games, but I found myself doing that here. The drawback, though, is how disruptive the game's design is. I mean the constant interruptions from the various enemies that makes it near impossible to perform a fully satisfying combo at times. The number of times a companion shouted "Kratos, behind you!" is probably equal to the game's sales. Your companions also shout brain-dead things such as "You're on fire!" while your entire body is engulfed in flames. Like, no shit, game! I totally couldn't tell I'm burning to death, especially in a game with such detail you'd probably see your nipple-hairs burning too. See above, where I said the game treats you like you're an idiot. The companions, by the way, are about as useful to you as a hairdryer would be to Kratos. Sometimes those dickheads just stand there and watch as you're getting the absolute shit blasted out of you from all holes. Sometimes they even get you killed.

The other problem with the combat is the cheap difficulty. Now, go ahead and make a game as difficult as you want, but it shouldn't be to the point that defies believability. I mean, you're supposed to be the fucking GOD of WAR, and yet almost anything can easily kill you in this game. I'm not kidding, even lizards have a decent shot of downing you. I've seen more resilience in a Toyota Prius. It breaks immersion. Playing GoW: R made me wonder how this bearded pussy ever killed anything, let alone the entire Greek Pantheon in the original trilogy. Your armor and defense stats amount to nothing most of the time. Your offensive abilities fare better, though sometimes I do wonder why Kratos is taking so long to kill a bunch of shit-faced human berserkers when, again, he's a "War God". To be fair, I played on the second hardest difficulty, but it's still a bad design for difficulty anyway, which was popularized by the Witcher 3 I believe (there, you are killed by a fisherman who is a higher level than you, even though you're a legendary monster-hunting Witcher). Difficulty shouldn't amount to a difference in "level" or to the enemies simply hitting harder and withstanding more damage, especially if it makes no sense in-universe.

I didn't mind the exploration, though it can be frustrating for others. Some sections are painfully linear, and you HAVE to go through them to get to other parts of the map. Every single time. It's very restrictive. Then there are the open world-ish areas that are filled with stuff to do. I enjoyed those segments a lot. The game takes you to a number of spectacular locations, which are made better by the visual fidelity. My favorite realm of them all was Vanaheim, with Svartalfheim being a close second. Asgard was jaw-droppingly gorgeous; I had to stop and just observe when I first got there. Midgard was okay; it's basically the first game but covered in snow. The other realms ranged from lame to really good, but the ones I just named are where the game shines best, in my opinion.

The story was alright, I suppose. The title gives it away. It's about Ragnarok, and the events leading to it. It's also mostly a continuation of the first game's themes, with the struggle of parenting and watching your kids grow into rebellious teenagers and eventually striking out on their own paths in life. I swear, it was like watching a lame Netflix high-school drama at times, instead of participating in ancient conflicts of gods and heroes near the end of their world. Speaking of Ragnarok itself, the event, while cool, didn't live up to the apocalyptic event it was supposed to be. On the other hand, I enjoyed Kratos' character development. He's almost unrecognizable from how he was in the original trilogy. He's wiser, kinder, and more open to advice and criticism. He truly came a long way. And I really appreciated how he was in the game's final segments. I left God of War III with a dislike for him, as he was as his most awful in that game, and left GoW: R with a genuine love for his character. I want to see more of this Kratos in the future. I appreciate the overall message of the game (and its predecessor), which simply boils down to "we must be better".

The Norse gods in this game were a mixed bag, to be honest. I mean, as complex and cool characters, they were good. But they weren't...godly. They were just like regular people that all of us can meet in our lives. Painfully so. Odin is basically like a Jerry the Head of the Software Development Department who personally gives you a tour of his company's building while low-key hating his job. I met one of those. Thor is every drunk uncle who's kind of scary when he's angry but a big baby on the inside. I have one of those. Freyr was a moron of the kind you meet many times. Thrudd argued with her mom like my sister argued with mine when she was a teenager. And so on. In the original trilogy, when a god showed up, it was a big deal. When Hades appears before you in the dark, you shat your pants. When Zeus showed up, shit hit the fan. And so on. Now, I get it, ancient myths typically portrayed gods as humans on a grander scale. My problem isn't that the gods here behave like people. My problem is that they're too much like regular people. Take their dialogue and show it to someone who hasn't played the game, and they wouldn't guess they were gods. Sure, they're like humans, but they should be like larger-than-life people!

So, overall, despite the frustrations, I enjoyed this game a lot, and was sad to see it finished. I'm usually a lenient critic, so I gave it the 8/10 you see above. As was the case with GoW 2018, this game is solid but not quite the masterpiece everyone is saying it is. As far as I'm concerned, Elden Ring is Game of the Year, though I have little doubt Ragnarok is gonna, well, Ragnarock ( :troll: ) those Game Awards shows and bag all of the awards anyway.

I do see myself replaying Ragnarok again, though I am discouraged by the fact you get to play as Atreus for a significant portion of the game, and he ain't as fun as his dad. I'm looking forward to seeing where they take God of War next. An Egyptian mythology setting would be fucking awesome.

Get to it, Santa Monica Studio!
 
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Dark Emperor

Dweller of the Lotus Moon
I have little doubt Ragnarok is gonna, well, Ragnarock ( :troll: ) those Game Awards shows and bag all of the awards anyway.
It will likely and undeservingly win the Game Award Shows for 2 reasons.
1. Low barrier of entry. Elden Ring will easily filter many "gamers" from playing it due to difficulty and no hand-holding.
2. These awards are likely bought and paid for by publishers, and as we all know, FromSoftware is not a sellout company.

Honestly who gives a shit about these award shows anyway? I'd rather do something else with my time than watch/read those.
 
It will likely and undeservingly win the Game Award Shows for 2 reasons.

Oh it will likely do that, and for more than 2 reasons haha. But yeah.

1. Low barrier of entry. Elden Ring will easily filter many "gamers" from playing it due to difficulty and no hand-holding.

That is true, although I think ER is the most accessible yet. The insane sales also suggest people are a lot more open to this kind of game than before.

But I think the main reason GoW would win is simply the huge production values and cinematic set-pieces and so on. It's like a huge blockbuster movie. The masses tend to favor stuff like that. Reminds me of 2009, when Uncharted 2 got all the awards even though I thought it was inferior to Assassin's Creed II. I think we have a similar situation here.

2. These awards are likely bought and paid for by publishers, and as we all know, FromSoftware is not a sellout company.

Probably. I mean, Last of Us 2 won everything in 2020, even best racing game! (Obviously not true, but you get the point).

Honestly who gives a shit about these award shows anyway? I'd rather do something else with my time than watch/read those.

I mainly watch them for the new announcements and trailers. And for a healthy dose of cringe so that I can keep up my immunity to stupid shit :ganishka:
 
Looks like The Callisto Protocol is a disappointment. Too bad!

I just beat it and...well, it's a mixed bag for sure. I'll try to keep it short.

As expected, the production values are super good. These games keep one-upping each other. I mean, you can see individual sweat beads trickling down your bald head. The gameplay is really fun; I will lie if I said I wanted to put it down. Melee is very satisfying when pulled off, and the way you can combine it with other weapons and environmental hazards while thinking quickly on your feet is awesome. If all you want is a fun zombie adventure, this game is for you.

On the other hand, the combat can be very frustrating due to the unforgiving difficulty, which is the main complaint of most publications. This would be fine if you didn't also battle the game's mechanics on top too. Sometimes they get you killed unfairly, such as when you turn a corner to run away from an enemy who can insta-kill you, but the character slows down or freezes in place because of an invisible box around, say, a table and the enemy catches up and kills you. The kill animations are cool, but they get old when you see them over and over and over again. Plus, some of them are really long and elaborate. The boss fights are lame. There are five of them; four are the same copy-pasted asshole, and the fifth is the final boss. They are pretty much the standard horror bullet sponges that are meant to drain your resources, except they kill you instantly. You can't afford mistakes.

Some aspects of the game are designed to fuck with you. Healing takes a long time, for example. I get that they're telling you to heal beforehand or in opportune moments, but the healing animation is made unnecessary long because the character has to stare at the syringe and turn it in his hand first before shoving it in. The dodging mechanic can get you in trouble because it is executed with the analog stick instead of a dedicated button for it. So if you're trying to run away, your character could execute a dodge instead if attacked from behind, changing the camera angle, and basically destroying your flow.

The plot is total crap. It pulls every cliché in the horror book. One dimensional villain who goes on and on about zombies being the "next step in human evolution"? Check. A self-destruct sequence at the end of the game? Check. And so on. Don't play this game for compelling storytelling, in other words. Black Iron Prison is not a bad setting, but it's not Dead Space's USG Ishimura, or Alien: Isolation's Sevastopol, or Bioshock's Rapture, or Resident Evil 2's RCPD Station, and so on. A setting with more personality would have gone a long way. Also, for a horror game, I didn't once feel it get under my skin the way a game like RE2make did. Tension, dread, the relief when you get to a safe place; none of that is here. Hmm. What else? The game is also lacking in certain features, such as new-game+ or a chapter select mode. So if you're looking to get all the collectibles and stuff like that, good luck haha.

Overall, this feels like a developer trying to recapture their glory days but not quite getting there. The Callisto Protocol is no Dead Space. I enjoyed it for what it was. I would have rated it higher and put it along the likes of RE2make if not for its frustrations and if its world had a little more personality to it.

I'd give it, at most, a 7/10.
 
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Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Looks like The Callisto Protocol is a disappointment. Too bad! On my end, I'm having a great time with Tactics Ogre on the Switch.
How do you feel about the change to skills? I've heard mixed things about it that gives me a bit of pause(I'd also like if they'd take away the blurry filter)
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
How do you feel about the change to skills? I've heard mixed things about it that gives me a bit of pause(I'd also like if they'd take away the blurry filter)

They made a ton of changes but to be honest, I hadn't played the game in so long that none of it has been bothering me much. There's many things I only barely remember (or am rediscovering) from the original. Generally it feels like a great modernization so far (I'm at chapter 5). They did overhaul the skill system significantly (removed a bunch and four skills can be equipped at max, which means you need to swap them out regularly between battles which is a bit annoying), but to me the biggest changes are the buff cards and the union level system.

The buff cards fundamentally change the tactical aspect of the game IMO, because sufficiently buffing a character instantly makes him or her a juggernaut. As a result, getting buffs becomes the priority and often turns the flow of battle. Enemy bosses are also prebuffed, which is pretty cool, and in theory that means they can be weakened if you manage to make them eat a less interesting card, or even a debuff one (good luck with that though).

The Union Level is a level cap for the party, which I don't like at all despite understanding its function. It means you're always at the appropriate level (slightly under the enemies), you can't get "overpowered" by grinding. The problem is that I like to do all the side missions and take my time, which results in me being level capped very quickly (even with backup characters, which I rotate) and staying that way for 10 battles in a row, where winning ends up not being very rewarding. It's quite frustrating. Removing random battles in favor of "Training battles" is fine though. Also I do like the "Scout" ability, which I don't think was in the original. Saves you (mostly) the trouble of having to start a battle, then reload to adapt your party.

Another change is the game feels more forgiving. In my memories, a mistake quickly meant a character's death. It could be quite frustrating and sometimes you felt like a victory was really paid with blood (or if you're like me you reloaded after wasting an hour and grinded). It feels more easy-going now, although I've decided to start trying to not let characters get incapacitated if I can avoid it as a sort of added challenge to myself. It's bringing back the pain of replaying past actions 5 times to try to avoid a bad outcome.

As far as the graphics treatment goes, honestly it hasn't been an issue at all for me. I was also quite negative with it going in, but I've been playing on the Switch in portable mode 95% of the time, and it looks great. It feels like the original game while being appropriately sharp. So... no complaint from me. The UI was basically completely redone and modernized too, and no complaints either. Well, except that they should have been more forthcoming with information about basic stuff like battle effects (frighten, leaden, weaken, etc.) in the Warren Report.

Overall it's really a remake in every sense of the word, not just what's called a "HD remaster" nowadays. It's fully meeting my expectations!
 

Dark Emperor

Dweller of the Lotus Moon
The Union Level is a level cap for the party, which I don't like at all despite understanding its function. It means you're always at the appropriate level (slightly under the enemies), you can't get "overpowered" by grinding. The problem is that I like to do all the side missions and take my time, which results in me being level capped very quickly (even with backup characters, which I rotate) and staying that way for 10 battles in a row, where winning ends up not being very rewarding. It's quite frustrating. Removing random battles in favor of "Training battles" is fine though. Also I do like the "Scout" ability, which I don't think was in the original. Saves you (mostly) the trouble of having to start a battle, then reload to adapt your party.
I don’t see this as too much of an issue. It helps avoid the issue that FF Tactics had where if you got to a really high level early in the the game, you could BTFO everything, especially at the point where you get Orlandeu. But I do see your point where battles don’t seem too rewarding when your not getting any Exp.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
The buff cards fundamentally change the tactical aspect of the game IMO, because sufficiently buffing a character instantly makes him or her a juggernaut. As a result, getting buffs becomes the priority and often turns the flow of battle. Enemy bosses are also prebuffed, which is pretty cool, and in theory that means they can be weakened if you manage to make them eat a less interesting card, or even a debuff one (good luck with that though).
I've heard some are frustrated by the buff card stuff because it makes every battle a race to go grab them before the enemy does, sounds like it could be interesting but annoying to do every map. I remember there was some sort of buff cards in the PSP version but maybe they weren't as strong or the system is different from what I half-remember being in the PSP one.

The Union Level is a level cap for the party, which I don't like at all despite understanding its function. It means you're always at the appropriate level (slightly under the enemies), you can't get "overpowered" by grinding. The problem is that I like to do all the side missions and take my time, which results in me being level capped very quickly (even with backup characters, which I rotate) and staying that way for 10 battles in a row, where winning ends up not being very rewarding. It's quite frustrating. Removing random battles in favor of "Training battles" is fine though. Also I do like the "Scout" ability, which I don't think was in the original. Saves you (mostly) the trouble of having to start a battle, then reload to adapt your party.
Sounds like they should have added some other benefit to battles when you're at the cap maybe, scout does sound good though, it was annoying to restart battles just to swap things around.

As far as the graphics treatment goes, honestly it hasn't been an issue at all for me. I was also quite negative with it going in, but I've been playing on the Switch in portable mode 95% of the time, and it looks great. It feels like the original game while being appropriately sharp. So... no complaint from me. The UI was basically completely redone and modernized too, and no complaints either. Well, except that they should have been more forthcoming with information about basic stuff like battle effects (frighten, leaden, weaken, etc.) in the Warren Report.
I'm thinking of playing it on my Steam Deck so I guess that "portable" mode would apply there too. I think I should just grab it either way since I would like them to see that the Ogre series and Matsuno do have fans that will buy his stuff, especially after his story stuff in FF14 was cut short.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
I don’t see this as too much of an issue. It helps avoid the issue that FF Tactics had where if you got to a really high level early in the the game, you could BTFO everything, especially at the point where you get Orlandeu. But I do see your point where battles don’t seem too rewarding when your not getting any Exp.

Like I said, I understand why they did it, but it's frustrating for me with my play style. There are better ways to achieve the same result, like putting a soft cap on leveling past certain points. That way your characters that are past the cap still gain XP but at a snail's pace, so that even if you do 20 extraneous battles, you'll maybe gain one level but won't be completely overpowered. And then you can still have a hard cap two levels past that just in case. Anyway, it's not ruining my fun or anything, just a bit frustrating.

I've heard some are frustrated by the buff card stuff because it makes every battle a race to go grab them before the enemy does, sounds like it could be interesting but annoying to do every map. I remember there was some sort of buff cards in the PSP version but maybe they weren't as strong or the system is different from what I half-remember being in the PSP one.

Yeah, the buff cards basically incentivize you to get a move on as soon as possible, whereas before you could be tempted to hole up in some maps. In truth you can still do that, but it puts you at a disadvantage, so most of the time, it's indeed a race to get the good buffs. What you mean from the PSP version must be the green cards. Those are still there, but they're permanent buffs that sometimes drop instead of standard loot. They're still as valuable as ever, although the tiny increments to stats they give you do pale in comparison to the huge damage boost you get from the blue buffs.

I'm thinking of playing it on my Steam Deck so I guess that "portable" mode would apply there too. I think I should just grab it either way since I would like them to see that the Ogre series and Matsuno do have fans that will buy his stuff, especially after his story stuff in FF14 was cut short.

Yeah, it's worth it to support the series and Matsuno. I'd rather get new games from him than another Triangle Strategy.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Whoa, nerd alert, enough strategery, let's talk some REAL GAMES!!

The Callisto Protofail - Oh no, I shouldn't have said anything! Yeah, I bought this even AFTER the lukewarm reviews came in with new games to play already because... fuck it, I just wanted a good looking horror game at night, it had a pedigree, and I'm dumb. So far I see what the complaining is about, it's not only not Dead Space, but feels like kind of a step back. It really lives up to its catchy name. I feel like I'm playing third person Doom III with only melee. Too early to tell if it truly sucks, but I'm unimpressed and already see what Lawliet is talking about, and by comparison Dead Space was already SO MUCH more creative out of the box. This just feels like a lesser copy of it, Doom 3, Half-Life, Bioshock... every move it tries to make I've seen done better already. Guess I should have waited for the Dead Space remake around the corner. :shrug:

Fraud of Whores: F*****cock - WHOA! I'm comin' in HOT on this one!! :mozgus: I kid, I kid, it's good! I finished it a while ago and almost immediately lost interest after upgrading some armor with that sweet post-game cash. Uhh, Lawliet pretty much covered everything I would have in a review. It was a nice enhancement over the original, though like he said it could be painfully linear and the puzzles were more just obstacles to slow you down so you don't finish it too quickly, plus yeah, it's always changing perspective and making you look forward to the next thing instead of what you're doing. I'm glad it had more going on and didn't try to stretch it into a trilogy, but it was also a bit incongruous with the more micro-focused slow burn of the first one where we spend a lot of time with Odin's more obscure family members before getting everyone else in this one. The production values were top notch but after a strong opening the plot is just 'aight. I basically guessed the biggest twist or turn, or I guess expected it because they had to do something interesting with that character (and frankly it could have been better). By the end all the motivations and stuff got kind of ragged and vague and people's agendas seemed to have unnaturally shifted for the sake of wrapping it up. But anyway, it was fun and more importantly it had enough gamey-ness in the upgrades etc to make that a bit satisfying as well so it's not purely a beat 'em up.

A Plaque Tail: Rectum - So far this is disappointing compared with the pleasantly surprising original. They tried to improve the gameplay, but it actually makes it easier to screw up. You can now switch any power to any weapon, which is cool, and change both by moving the d-pad... BUT, you have to hold aim to do this which takes you out of cover, so if you try it like me, you're going to get yourself caught all the time, and always be on the wrong power AND weapon for the situation and scrolling through way too many options, so it's basically a BAD habit and you need to stick to the semi-paused weapon wheel anyway. The upgrade system is also really dumbed down, basically the opposite of what happened with God of War. Besides that, it's very derivative of the original, like feels exactly the same except EVERYONE has a helmet now, fun, and the plot is really disappointing. Amicia is basically crazy now and constantly rambling about Hugo and killing everybody that looks at them sideways, and that's about all that's driving the plot. The last game had a lot more varied and interesting stuff going on. We'll see if it improves.

It will likely and undeservingly win the Game Award Shows for 2 reasons.
1. Low barrier of entry. Elden Ring will easily filter many "gamers" from playing it due to difficulty and no hand-holding.
2. These awards are likely bought and paid for by publishers, and as we all know, FromSoftware is not a sellout company.

Honestly who gives a shit about these award shows anyway? I'd rather do something else with my time than watch/read those.

Actually, I do! I think they, like video games themselves, have a chance to basically supplant traditional awards media and help further validate and expand the reach of the medium (a topic I'm specifically interested in and may write more on later...). I certainly care more about who wins the various game awards than any music, movie or TV prize at this point, and clearly you have feelings about it too! That's good.

Oh it will likely do that, and for more than 2 reasons haha. But yeah.

I don't know about that you guys, remember that Sekiro won the year after the last God of War did, so it's kind of a tournament of champions between Santa Monica and From Soft here. See, a little history makes it more interesting too, but I think it could go either way and even give the edge to Elden Ring. I wouldn't be surprised if God of War won, but I think there'd be a bigger stink about Elden Ring losing. Basically, it might be best for both games if ER just wins. But hey, if From Soft can somehow maintain its underground rock star cred after moving more units than Call of Duty, what's a bigger win than that? :carcus:

BTW, isn't it kind of funny how similar the subject matter of these two games ended up being?

Oh yeah, and once again, my condolences to the Horizon team. :ganishka:

But I think the main reason GoW would win is simply the huge production values and cinematic set-pieces and so on. It's like a huge blockbuster movie. The masses tend to favor stuff like that.

Yeah, it's truly like a blockbuster movie AND the equivalent of video game Oscar bait like The Last of Us. Games as ART, maaaan. When Kratos stiltedly expressed love for his son man, I cared more than I do about my OWN children! So moving!! :judo:
 
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Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished Devil May Cry the other night. I forgot how hard Nightmare was, especially compared to Mundus. Overall, I found the game to be really enjoyable, though the controls were a bit awkward here and there (sometimes I'd end up jumping instead of rolling, depending on which way Dante was facing, compared to the analog stick). Despite a few minor complaints, including the terrible and often hard-to-hear voice acting, I thought the game held up well for its age.

Next up, Luigi's Mansion!
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
Yeah, it's truly like a blockbuster movie AND the equivalent of video game Oscar bait like The Last of Us. Games as ART, maaaan. When Kratos stiltedly expressed love for his son man, I cared more than I do about my OWN children! So moving!! :judo:
One of my biggest issues with games these days is when they try to replicate movies. A friend started describing how the Last of Us 2 has something ridiculously stupid like 10 hours of cut scenes, which just sounds terrible to me. I would rather just watch a movie.

I've been interested in trying out GoW and Last of Us, but their style of storytelling is why I avoid those games.

Though, I loved The Quarry. My wife and I had a blast. I avoided all The Dark Pictures games but absolutely loved that game so much so that I am going to try the Dark Pictures games.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Plague Tale Part Deux - Getting better, adding some of those unexpectedly endearing, eccentric characters into the mix like the first game, but I'm still not 100% sure it's going somewhere interesting, but we'll see. It definitely doesn't have nearly as solid a foundation with the villains and plotting as the first game did by this point, but maybe it'll still surprise me. Having fun playing with my rats and vibing out in this world anyway, much more than God of War's hyperreality.

One of my biggest issues with games these days is when they try to replicate movies. A friend started describing how the Last of Us 2 has something ridiculously stupid like 10 hours of cut scenes, which just sounds terrible to me. I would rather just watch a movie.

I've been interested in trying out GoW and Last of Us, but their style of storytelling is why I avoid those games.

Those games may very well have that much cinematic time, or narrative time in general, but I don't recall it feeling that long or being bored by it because I think it gets parceled out more economically than, say, Hideo Kojima likes to do it where you're literally watching a feature length cutscene between gameplay sections. I don't remember Last of Us 2 so well, but GoW2's weren't too bad at all, and were properly more like cool little narrative rewards for your progression, that I could be thrilled or underwhelmed by, as it should be (I thought they could have done more big picture stuff actually, less "Did you collect my orbs?" lol if you know what I mean). You want a narrative payoff for actually reaching your in-game goals, a little reward dating back to the still image "cutscenes" between levels in NES games, yet so many games get it wrong and make them too long or completely unfulfilling. Probably the biggest advancement in this regard is how much of this can be accomplished as you play via conversations between characters (even Hideo got this perfect in MGSV, dialogue over the radio, no codec screen, mini-cutscenes between missions, before fully relapsing into delusional cinematic grandeur with Death Stranding =). God of War does A LOT of that and it's a good thing, though sometimes you'll have a huge moment, revelation or breakthrough come out in a casual conversation and it's like... shouldn't THAT have been the highlighted scene instead of Kratos' boring, ambiguous dreams that go nowhere and are kind of dumb? I swear, I kind of spent the whole game waiting for the plot to live back up to that opening meeting with the principal characters, but it never really got there again.

Though, I loved The Quarry. My wife and I had a blast. I avoided all The Dark Pictures games but absolutely loved that game so much so that I am going to try the Dark Pictures games.

I've looked hard at that one because of the cast (Lance Henriksen!? WOW!!!), but still haven't pulled the trigger.


BTW, anybody "played" Immortality? It any good as a game, or more of an interactive choose-your-own-adventure show?
 

Dark Emperor

Dweller of the Lotus Moon
One of my biggest issues with games these days is when they try to replicate movies. A friend started describing how the Last of Us 2 has something ridiculously stupid like 10 hours of cut scenes, which just sounds terrible to me. I would rather just watch a movie.

I've been interested in trying out GoW and Last of Us, but their style of storytelling is why I avoid those games.
I really HATE this trend. I only give Hideo Kojima a pass because Metal Gear cutscenes are interesting as fuck to watch.
 
Whoa, nerd alert, enough strategery, let's talk some REAL GAMES!!

Hi Griff, glad to see someone with REAL taste over here :troll:

Ah, who am I kidding? Joke's on us as it seems we're the ones abusing our wallets and playing all the crap out there haha. Meanwhile, people like Aaz will have enough to purchase new bodies to install their consciousness into after they hit old age.

The Callisto Protofail - Oh no, I shouldn't have said anything! Yeah, I bought this even AFTER the lukewarm reviews came in with new games to play already because... fuck it, I just wanted a good looking horror game at night, it had a pedigree, and I'm dumb. So far I see what the complaining is about, it's not only not Dead Space, but feels like kind of a step back. It really lives up to its catchy name. I feel like I'm playing third person Doom III with only melee. Too early to tell if it truly sucks, but I'm unimpressed and already see what Lawliet is talking about, and by comparison Dead Space was already SO MUCH more creative out of the box. This just feels like a lesser copy of it, Doom 3, Half-Life, Bioshock... every move it tries to make I've seen done better already. Guess I should have waited for the Dead Space remake around the corner. :shrug:

You & Aaz called it back then, so kudos to you. Speaking of Dead Space, here's the first 18 minutes of the remake:


Fraud of Whores: F*****cock - WHOA! I'm comin' in HOT on this one!! :mozgus: I kid, I kid, it's good! I finished it a while ago and almost immediately lost interest after upgrading some armor with that sweet post-game cash. Uhh, Lawliet pretty much covered everything I would have in a review. It was a nice enhancement over the original, though like he said it could be painfully linear and the puzzles were more just obstacles to slow you down so you don't finish it too quickly, plus yeah, it's always changing perspective and making you look forward to the next thing instead of what you're doing. I'm glad it had more going on and didn't try to stretch it into a trilogy, but it was also a bit incongruous with the more micro-focused slow burn of the first one where we spend a lot of time with Odin's more obscure family members before getting everyone else in this one. The production values were top notch but after a strong opening the plot is just 'aight. I basically guessed the biggest twist or turn, or I guess expected it because they had to do something interesting with that character (and frankly it could have been better). By the end all the motivations and stuff got kind of ragged and vague and people's agendas seemed to have unnaturally shifted for the sake of wrapping it up. But anyway, it was fun and more importantly it had enough gamey-ness in the upgrades etc to make that a bit satisfying as well so it's not purely a beat 'em up.

Glad you enjoyed it too. By the way, have you ever wondered what it's like to be Mimir? I spent a lot of time thinking about it instead of the riveting twists and turns of this epic saga about parenting Ragnarok. I found my answer:


A Plaque Tail: Rectum - So far this is disappointing compared with the pleasantly surprising original. They tried to improve the gameplay, but it actually makes it easier to screw up. You can now switch any power to any weapon, which is cool, and change both by moving the d-pad... BUT, you have to hold aim to do this which takes you out of cover, so if you try it like me, you're going to get yourself caught all the time, and always be on the wrong power AND weapon for the situation and scrolling through way too many options, so it's basically a BAD habit and you need to stick to the semi-paused weapon wheel anyway. The upgrade system is also really dumbed down, basically the opposite of what happened with God of War. Besides that, it's very derivative of the original, like feels exactly the same except EVERYONE has a helmet now, fun, and the plot is really disappointing. Amicia is basically crazy now and constantly rambling about Hugo and killing everybody that looks at them sideways, and that's about all that's driving the plot. The last game had a lot more varied and interesting stuff going on. We'll see if it improves.

I beat Rectum before Callisto came out. I have a bunch of things to say about it too, but I'll wait until you finish so we can avoid spoilers.

I don't know about that you guys, remember that Sekiro won the year after the last God of War did, so it's kind of a tournament of champions between Santa Monica and From Soft here. See, a little history makes it more interesting too, but I think it could go either way and even give the edge to Elden Ring. I wouldn't be surprised if God of War won, but I think there'd be a bigger stink about Elden Ring losing. Basically, it might be best for both games if ER just wins. But hey, if From Soft can somehow maintain its underground rock star cred after moving more units than Call of Duty, what's a bigger win than that? :carcus:

A duel between champions, huh? Well, you made it more interesting!

I don't know about it being controversial if ER loses though. It already lost the player's choice award; in fact it got destroyed. To Sonic Frontiers (or maybe it was Genshin Impact) no less! As is expected, the more successful a thing gets, the more contrarians it draws; just look at all the videos claiming ER is no masterpiece and that we are just Miyazaki's bitches!

By the way, fellow Tarnished, ER just updated with a new colosseum mode:


BTW, isn't it kind of funny how similar the subject matter of these two games ended up being?

Elden Ring is about your kid going to college?

Oh yeah, and once again, my condolences to the Horizon team. :ganishka:

Easy with the flamethrower, man! :ganishka:

But hey, at least Horizon will get my "Most Environmentally Friendly" game award, for 2 reasons: it planted so many huge (dialogue) trees, and recycled so much from the first one.

Yeah, it's truly like a blockbuster movie AND the equivalent of video game Oscar bait like The Last of Us. Games as ART, maaaan. When Kratos stiltedly expressed love for his son man, I cared more than I do about my OWN children! So moving!! :judo:

Exactly. I don't even have kids and that stirred paternal instincts I didn't know I had!

I mean, how can a story about a mad general whose soldiers stage a tournament to give him an honorable death even compare? Wait, you need to piece it together first. Too much work. Did I mentioned people were outraged ER got nominated for best narrative?

I finished Devil May Cry the other night. I forgot how hard Nightmare was, especially compared to Mundus. Overall, I found the game to be really enjoyable, though the controls were a bit awkward here and there (sometimes I'd end up jumping instead of rolling, depending on which way Dante was facing, compared to the analog stick). Despite a few minor complaints, including the terrible and often hard-to-hear voice acting, I thought the game held up well for its age.


One of my biggest issues with games these days is when they try to replicate movies. A friend started describing how the Last of Us 2 has something ridiculously stupid like 10 hours of cut scenes, which just sounds terrible to me. I would rather just watch a movie.

What Griff said. I'd also add that this traditional way of storytelling in games (go from A to B, get plot development through cutscenes) is simply piss poor use of the medium. The best games are the ones were the gameplay is the story. That's why something with 'basic' storytelling like Zelda is more compelling than all those movie-wannabes.

I've been interested in trying out GoW and Last of Us, but their style of storytelling is why I avoid those games.

I'd recommend playing the original GoW trilogy if you haven't already. It's been a long, long time since I played them so I don't know how well they hold up, but they were the shit back in the day. Unpopular opinion, but I think they're, in many ways, more compelling than the reboot. At least, over there, you get to participate in myth and not a single-parent simulator.

As for Last of Us, spare your braincells and play only the first one. Part II is a turd that has only smelled worse with time, as far as I'm concerned.

I really HATE this trend. I only give Hideo Kojima a pass because Metal Gear cutscenes are interesting as fuck to watch.

I'd rather watch my cats lick their buttholes to be honest.

Metal Gear Solid 4 would like to have a word worth you... for approximately 10 total hours.

Plus insufferably long codec convos with Drebin, where he explains the backstory of the bitch who just tried to murder me, as if expecting me to feel sympathy. Too bad I was too busy passing out from the boredom instead.
 
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Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler

It never fails to make me laugh. The first time I saw it, my roommate and I just looked at each other like, “WTF? That was awful and came out of fucking nowhere.”

One night, my wife and I got drunk and watched a bunch of terrible video game voice acting clips on YouTube. DMC’s was the star of the show. We must’ve rewatched that clip 17 times. I thought I was going to throw up. :void:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
It never fails to make me laugh. The first time I saw it, my roommate and I just looked at each other like, “WTF? That was awful and came out of fucking nowhere.”

One night, my wife and I got drunk and watched a bunch of terrible video game voice acting clips on YouTube. DMC’s was the star of the show. We must’ve rewatched that clip 17 times. I thought I was going to throw up. :void:
I just can't believe that the localization team heard that and were like "Yep. That's the one! That's the take. That's a wrap, everybody!"
 
I just can't believe that the localization team heard that and were like "Yep. That's the one! That's the take. That's a wrap, everybody!"

Haha. The line itself is irredeemable though; no delivery could have made that scene good anyway. At least we got something hilarious out of it.

EDIT: As I type, Miyazaki is giving his acceptance speech for Game of the Year. Elden Ring actually won. Happy for them and glad I was wrong.
 
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Dark Emperor

Dweller of the Lotus Moon
Metal Gear Solid 4 would like to have a word with you... for approximately 10 total hours.
Honestly I didn’t even mind. I was fully immersed in that game that I never even realized the cutscenes ran for that long. I might need to replay all those games at some point because I was in high school when I played them, so I doubt that I completely understood the story back then. I replayed Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance last year and listening to Senator Armstrong’s speech at the end made me look at it in a completely new perspective I know I didn’t have back then.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
You & Aaz called it back then, so kudos to you.

Yet not when the calculus actually costs me money!

I beat Rectum before Callisto came out. I have a bunch of things to say about it too, but I'll wait until you finish so we can avoid spoilers.

Haven't played the latter since I first got it, but finished the former last night, so let me put some respect on its name (before disrespecting its game) :

A Plague Tale: Requiem - So this one took basically the entire playthrough to come together, but they finally stuck the landing, albeit with a hop or two on the needless epilogue.

First, even though I liked it well enough in the end, this is somehow a worse game and story than the original, and there's seemingly more emphasis on story! I already mentioned the stats, upgrades, and items are basically perfunctory, though clunkier to use for it, but there's literally not one boss fight in this game! Unless you count an armored dude you fight solo near the beginning who I accidentally insta-killed by setting him on fire and shooting off his armor, but that's because he's just a normal enemy. That's all you fight, the climatic encounters are more mob rushes than anything, which is ok but kind of a letdown since even the first game had a few dedicated and memorable bosses. One guy here is set up to be this terrifying encounter but he's killed in a cutscene by a supporting character that's also maybe the weakest part of the game's story overall (the character isn't bad, just their involvement is poorly handled all around including the nadir moment of the franchise). Other than that, there wasn't a lot of exciting innovations, there was some noticable technical glitches and framerate issues during some scenes, and aside from the fact that, yeah, you can get your ass caught or eaten by rats at any time, it basically feels like "story mode" is baked in. So, the story must be great then, right!?

Well, it kind of works itself into shape as you're playing, but compared to the original it's pretty ragged and anemic. What I really liked about that one was it felt like a down to earth, medieval period piece with a lot of history and culture that threw a single semi-supernatural element on top, and I say semi because even that was presented pseudo-scientifically and like a mythological affliction, as long as they could. By contrast, this one is basically a full on fantasy story that could just be in a completely made up world, and that's what it's almost wholly focused on, it's own made up lore.

It's also not very structurally sound and doesn't have the numerous interesting events and supporting characters of the original; this one is a straight line journey in real time that doesn't really have any greater purpose than to just keep moving along. Important characters come and go for huge swaths of the game and return with whimper, and you don't even see or know who the villain is until near the end, their motives aren't clear and seemingly malleable, and I thought it was like four different groups at various points ("Are the evil beekeepers ever coming back?"). I still don't even know the big bad's full name, and he has no greater significance to the themes of the overarching story and world, except some BS about the fires of war, like the Inquisition did in the original and in addition to it being a perfect fit they went to great lengths to add supporting details to those antagonists.

So, that's all a lot squishier than before, and your allies aren't much better because I have no idea why they keep helping you during scarier and scarier escalations of rats destroying everything as opposed to just tossing Hugo in the sea. I kept waiting for one to be a traitor working to capture Hugo for a benefactor because that made more sense for why they were sticking around through this apocalyptic shit for some crazy people they just met. It also doesn't help that these supporting characters are middle-aged adults rather than orphaned adolescents like in the first one, where it kind of makes sense why they all stick together (and it's unexpectedly cool and they build something over time; not so here).

Anyway, the biggest literal plot fail I alluded to earlier is when you need to sneak into a ceremony where everyone is in pairs, one adult and one child, and your adult helper character suddenly conjures an apparently cooperative, mute child out of nowhere without comment or explanation to sneak in with you, and then the kid is just as conveniently gone after. You don't even need the helper character during the sequence and you basically sneak out to meet up after anyway, but it's one of the worst and most sloppily handled convenient plot contrivances I've ever seen! I'm still not over it, obviously. I think it speaks to the fact they were just making it up as they go and doing "whatever works" to that end, but that's no excuse not to go back and refine this a little more so it makes basic sense. Just have her sneak in after the ceremony starts!

Anyway, I still like the gameplay loop and characters even though Amicia is pretty one note now, though at least that's for a payoff even though they could have done more with her own internal conflict (she's agitated and killing people all the time =), but where the game and story shine are the rats and the dramatic atmosphere and climatic set pieces they build around them. They managed to make it way cooler than I imagined possible from the sort of limits they seemed to run into in the original (rat-nados! The pinnacle of hive-minded rat technology), but they found a way to really take it to new and better heights with some truly awe inspiring sequences. I won't spoil any of that here, but it's really the best argument this game has going for it, including the ending, which more than felt right yet still ballsy compared to what I was expecting (God of War could have taken a lesson; really interesting contrast playing these back to back).

So, even with all those criticisms and it clearly being worse than the original, I still enjoyed it quite a bit and it's going to be among my top games of the year, maybe even high on the list because it just moved me more than most of the other top contenders.:shrug:

EDIT: As I type, Miyazaki is giving his acceptance speech for Game of the Year. Elden Ring actually won. Happy for them and glad I was wrong.

Yep, pretty cool, and they even had their weird viral Oscar moment during it when that kid went up there ready to go with a fantastic non sequitur. :ganishka:

Oh, and they got fucking AL PACINO to hand out the performance award!? Wow, impressive for them yet debasing for him. Also, I love doing the Kratos' voice as much as anybody, but the guy's job is basically to sound as deeply monotone and stoic as possible at all times and say "No" to most lines of conversation. Was thinking of this last night while listening to the voice actress for Amicia completely lay it all out there to sell the material.
 
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