What Are You Playing?

Just picked up Minishoot Adventures after playing the full demo. $15 on Steam. It is in the most literal ways you can imagine: Zelda 1 + Geometry Wars.


 
Tunic. Fun game, if a little weird. Also, what a strange choice to have most things expressed in a fictional language! Pretty irritating actually. I can see the Zelda influence too, except I hated Link’s Awakening on the Switch. Let’s see where this goes.
 
Is it that uncommon? Ico and Shadow of the Colossus do the same thing, as I recall.
Sure, but those games translate what they’re saying. Tunic leaves you in the dark most of the time. The game is literally mostly gibberish and you have to piece together what everything is supposed to mean or do. It would make FromSoft blush :ganishka:

Edit: As an example, the game will give you a prompt such as “@*#%(@?”. You’re supposed to select Yes or No to that and so on.
 
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I bought Nioh 1 and 2 recently, but hadn’t played them yet. I’ve decided it’s now time to do so.
 
Finished Tunic. It grew on me the more I played it. Except for one rage inducing part, it was fun.

I’m now playing Pacific Drive. I’m not into survival games, but I’m strangely enjoying this one. It’s a simulation of a road-trip gone horribly wrong. No combat, just you and your car versus a weird and quirky nature.
 
I've been playing GTFO on steam with some friends recently, the atmosphere is absolutely amazing because of the lighting and ambient sounds. Teamwork and stealth are required in this game as meds, ammo and tool refills are scare and its easy to get over run with enemies. The game has a HUGE library of different levels all separated into 8 rundowns. I think there's something like 80 levels total maybe more.
 
I spent the last few days playing Silent Hill 2 for the first time. What a great game. I’ll be honest, it took me a while to truly get into it, but that’s just because starting a new series/game is always a bit of a chore for me. I’d say it started to really pull me in at the end of the apartments section of the game.

I’m grateful that I went in blind. As the game progressed and became more surreal and warped, I really didn’t know what was going on. As in, I didn’t know what the reality of the situation was: Eddie, Angela, Maria, James, all the text talking about the lake, murders, etc. But in hindsight, it was all pretty brilliant. By the time I reached the hotel, I was super invested and could barely put the game down.

I ended up getting the “in water” ending. I’m currently replaying through the game to get a different one. I teared up a bit as the final, real letter from Mary scrolled across the screen.

I can’t say I was truly scared by the game, but its environments, soundtracks, and sound design were still really effective in inducing this atmosphere of despair. Especially after James views the tape in room 312 and remembers what really happened to his wife. That’s when the game goes full send with this concept that James is in some sort of personal hell and is being mentally tortured by his own mind. What comes after the tape viewing was my favorite stretch of the game. It was really sad, too.

I plan on getting a ps5 in the coming months and playing the remake when it releases. I’m pretty excited. Any thoughts on the remake so far? Do you guys think it’ll live up to the original or are you expecting it to be a bad remake?
 
I keep procrastinating on my updates, so here's another list. :void:

Hitman 2 was pretty fun. I enjoyed the sandbox feeling of it, even if there's not really an infinite way to progress through each mission. That being said, there were enough different ways of doing things that I often found myself restarting a mission after one idea I had failed and trying something else. I'm ashamed to say at one point in the mission where you had to kill the two officials meeting in a secured park, after multiple attempts I just ran in, killed them and ran away. Didn't feel great about that one, but it got the job done. :ganishka:

Max Payne 2 was as enjoyable as the first game, especially without all those annoying dream sequences/balancing acts. My only complaint about it is that it was way too short. I'll probably play it again someday on a higher difficulty level.

As I mentioned in the chat several weeks ago, I got lost in Morrowind for quite some time. Ever since attempting to play Elder Scrolls: Arena, I've been a bit intimidated by the Elder Scrolls games. I'm not sure why, in restrospect, because Morrowind was a lot of fun. I loved the world-building and the amount of stuff you could do, factions you could join, books you could read, etc. I didn't find it intimidating at all and spent every ounce of free time I had immersed in a world I was sad to leave. I rarely feel that way with the games I've played, but I know that when I do I've played something really special. I completely undestand the hype and why so many people still enjoy playing Elder Scrolls III. I'm really looking forward to playing Oblivion whenever it is I'll get to it.

I bought Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ages ago when I was in college, but for some reason I hardly played it. I don't know why, because it was really fun. There's nothing cooler than running on walls, jumping onto moving platforms, missing a platform and then rewinding time to get it right on the second opportunity. The only disappointing part of the game was the final boss battle. I was hoping for something that would incorporate all of the moves and time-bending you'd learned up to that point, but it was mostly hack-and-slash over and over again to beat the vizier.

I finished Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando over the weekend. Another fun 3D platformer/run-and-gun, just like the first one. Who knew bolt-collecting and blowing up thirty different things on screen at once using every type of weapon imaginable could be so much fun? The only gripes I had were the giant Clank battles and the boss battle against the giant Thugs-4-Less robot. The first were mind-numbing and uninteresting and the second was just too damn long.

As for the game I'm playing now, I've returned to Jak II. I was able to get past the part where I got stuck before and am enjoying myself again (although apparently there's some really tough missions I've yet to experience, so...). I'm gonna stick with this one to the end and then try playing Silent Hill 2, even though the first one scared the hell out of me. I've heard it's a masterpiece, so I can't pass it up.
 
I plan on getting a ps5 in the coming months and playing the remake when it releases. I’m pretty excited. Any thoughts on the remake so far? Do you guys think it’ll live up to the original or are you expecting it to be a bad remake?

I haven't really kept up with it but I saw some critical feedback for the most recent trailer. I think it's hard to say at this point, but the fact they brought back some of the original team, including the lead designer, is encouraging.

That being said, I'm not desperate for remakes. I didn't buy RE4's and I'm not particularly looking forward to this one either. If anything I think I'd have preferred a Silent Hill 1 remake, but everyone's obsessed with Pyramid Head for some reason, so it had to be SH2.

Out of all the projects they announced for the series' revival, the flower one remains the most interesting to me.
 
I spent the last few days playing Silent Hill 2 for the first time. What a great game. I’ll be honest, it took me a while to truly get into it, but that’s just because starting a new series/game is always a bit of a chore for me. I’d say it started to really pull me in at the end of the apartments section of the game.

I’m grateful that I went in blind. As the game progressed and became more surreal and warped, I really didn’t know what was going on. As in, I didn’t know what the reality of the situation was: Eddie, Angela, Maria, James, all the text talking about the lake, murders, etc. But in hindsight, it was all pretty brilliant. By the time I reached the hotel, I was super invested and could barely put the game down.

I ended up getting the “in water” ending. I’m currently replaying through the game to get a different one. I teared up a bit as the final, real letter from Mary scrolled across the screen.

I can’t say I was truly scared by the game, but its environments, soundtracks, and sound design were still really effective in inducing this atmosphere of despair. Especially after James views the tape in room 312 and remembers what really happened to his wife. That’s when the game goes full send with this concept that James is in some sort of personal hell and is being mentally tortured by his own mind. What comes after the tape viewing was my favorite stretch of the game. It was really sad, too.

I plan on getting a ps5 in the coming months and playing the remake when it releases. I’m pretty excited. Any thoughts on the remake so far? Do you guys think it’ll live up to the original or are you expecting it to be a bad remake?
That’s cool. Glad you were able to play it and get a fresh experience. That’s tough with all the decades of takes on the internet. I really loved SH2 when it first came out. I remember playing it in my first apartment away from home in college when I was 18. Great story, weird characters, loved the atmosphere and overall vibe of the game. Hasn’t been repeated since, in my opinion.

As for the remake, I don’t personally care, but it will allow more people to play the game, so that’s cool I guess.
 
Currently I am on Shadows of the Erdtree. I'm loving it so far, which isn't a shocker for me because I've kind of gone crazy for this game on a personal level. Once I finish it, I plan on trying to beat Lies of P and restarting Armored Core 6. My hope is to get some horror games to play during October, so far I'm just looking to replay Resident Evil Remake and Resident Evil 4 remake.
As for the remake, I don’t personally care, but it will allow more people to play the game, so that’s cool I guess.
That was my initial stance before seeing the gameplay trailer, now I'm kind of leaning towards trying to play it. With that said, I'll have to try it on my laptop and see if that works. :troll:
 
I'm going throuh a small list of games that I missed or didnt play the right way.

RE2 on PS1: I finished this game years ago on arrange mode. This mode is below easy and you get a ton of strong guns at the start (some with unlimited ammo I believe). Naturally I couldn't live with this blemish, so I finished the game on easy this time, like a real man. I also did Claire A/Leon B instead of Leon A/Claire B, which is supposed to be canon (not that it matters a lot). Anyway, amazing game!

GTA Vice City: A game I finished when I was a kid, but I remember using cheat codes in some missions. Mixed feelings after completing it again. Story was quite bad and I forgot how frustrating old GTA can get. It was a lot better in my mind and I may consider putting Red Dead Redemption and Bully above it. Still had fun with it though.

Currently playing through Devil May Cry 3. Other games that are on my list are Deux Ex, Death Stranding, MGS5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
 
I finished Silent Hill 2 over the weekend. Here are my thoughts.

Story: Pretty amazing considering when it debuted. I’m not sure I’ve ever played a game that explored so many “taboo” topics like child abuse or what it’s like caring for a sick spouse. It’s definitely the game’s main selling point. I’m glad I finally got up the courage to play it and experience the story first hand.

Gameplay: This was both the strongest and weakest part of the experience for me. Much like the first Silent Hill and other survival horror games from the 90s, the combat isn’t great. Part of that is by design; if it were easy to mow down everything in sight, the game wouldn’t be as tense. However, I found it almost too easy to battle monsters in SH2, so it stopped being scary pretty quickly. That first hour or so, though. Oof. I did not like that first apartment building one bit. It was almost worse once I found the flashlight. That part of the gameplay was amazing. So atmospheric. Who knew just walking around could be so unnerving?

Graphics: Some of the best I’ve seen on the PS2. The FMVs didn’t hold up nearly as well, but the in-game graphics were terrific, especially the lighting effects and the look of the fog. The movement of the various creatures and characters was pretty great, too. Good stuff all around.

Sound: The sound effects were top-notch and the music was incredible. I think the sound scared me even more than the visuals did. One of the best sonic experiences I’ve had playing a video game. Might have to get that soundtrack one of these days, too.

I know I’m late to the party with all of these games, but for anyone who hasn’t played SH2 yet, I can’t recommend it enough.

One of these days, I’m going to go back and obtain the other endings, but for now I’m going to play the exact opposite of a Silent Hill game: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. :void:
 
I finished Cyberpunk 2077 recently. I put close to 200 hours into it, did everything, checked out all endings, etc. It's hard to overstate what a monumental game it is. The gameplay's great, and manages to do great "immersive sim" stuff in an open world, but it's the narrative stuff that makes it truly special. The board game (which I wasn't familiar with beforehand) provided a great foundation for the world, but CDProjekt Red fleshed it out amazingly. The writing and acting is just incredible, and Keanu Reeves is so perfect as Johnny Silverhand that I'd say it's among his best performances as an actor.

I guess it's unfortunate it had so many problems at launch, but having waited until "v2.0" to get into it, I have to say it's a contender for "game of the decade". Gonna have to thank @Walter for offering me the game, because otherwise I don't know if I would ever have played it (not being a Witcher fan).

Now I'm playing Quantum Break from Remedy, another game I'd skipped (despite owning it) and it's better than I thought it'd be! I should have played it sooner.

TJ-E.jpg

That aside I've also been giving Rhombaad some competition: I had the time of my life replaying Toejam & Earl on the Switch. Originally released on the Megadrive in 1991, it's a really unique game that I feel was both ahead of its time and is a great poster child for "all ages, wholesome videogames". It stars two funky aliens, the titular Toejam and Earl, who hail from planet Funkotron and end up stranded on Earth after Earl crashes their space ship into an asteroid while listening to sick tunes.

The game is composed of literal levels (floating in space) you have to ascend to using magic elevators, some of which feature a piece of your ship. It's a nonsensical fantasy landscape that's just fun, with a few types of terrain and a bunch of wacky enemies like little devils that sting your ass with their tridents, boogeymen who hide in the shadows, sharks in the water or crazed lawnmowing maniacs.

There's basically 25 levels that you have to explore to find pieces of the ship and then it ends. Can be played with one or two players, and you can explore a level separately if you want (but you need to link up to move up a level). You can fall off the edge of the map to the level below if you're not careful, and many enemies can push you off the edge.

Ideally it's best to avoid enemies and to get the upper hand you can use use presents that are lying around that give you random power ups (and sometimes penalize you). For example there's tomatoes which you can throw at enemies to make them disappear, or rocket shoes that make you zip across the map. You sometimes see Santa as he's dropping said presents (who then flies off on a jetpack). There's also a bunch of allies like a Valkyrie-like opera singer who can scream-kill all enemies on screen, an old man dressed as a carrot who can identify presents, etc. Oh and your character "levels up" by becoming progressively cooler, from a "wiener" to a "rapmaster".

Lastly, the game has procedural level randomization built in, so that it can stay fresh when you replay it. While playing I thought to myself they ought to remake or reboot it, because it's just so fun... And sadly, some shitty remake was indeed produced a few years back and it looks awful. Oh well, there's always the original. Go play it!
 
Ah, that takes me back. I remember renting Toejam & Earl back in the day for my Genesis. I think I may have been too young for it at the time, because I remember finding it confusing. I may have to revisit it one of these days.
 
Did you play Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk as well?

Yeah I got the "Ultimate Edition" of the game, which includes Phantom Liberty. It's the one to get, it adds a lot of great content.

I think I may have been too young for it at the time, because I remember finding it confusing. I may have to revisit it one of these days.

It's great. Hard to finish up back in the day because it requires relatively long play sessions, but that's trivial nowadays on Switch, can just pause whenever you want.
 
Hard to finish up back in the day because it requires relatively long play sessions, but that's trivial nowadays on Switch, can just pause whenever you want.

I don't know if I'd have been able to finish half the games I played from the mid 80s to the early 90s if I hadn't been able to pause whenever I wanted. Super Mario Bros. 3 comes to mind. Oof.

I finished Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga last night. Here are my thoughts.

Story: Delightful. New villains named Cackletta and Fawful attempt to steal the Beanstar from the neighboring Beanbean Kingdom and only two superstar plumbers from the Mushroom Kingdom (and my favorite character in the game, Prince Peasley) can stop them?! Shigeru Miyamoto never ceases to amaze me. I'm getting a little tired of the Luigi-bashing, but at least he was a playable character this time, unlike in the equally delightful Paper Mario.

Gameplay: The stuff they brought over from Paper Mario was great, but the use of A and B to individually control Mario and Luigi was hit and miss, especially when it came to some of the mini-games. That last mini-game in Joke's End almost made me rage-quit the game. Overall, though, I think it was a success and I'm always happy to see companies trying something new. From what I've experienced so far, Nintendo seems to do that the best.

Graphics: I haven't played a game on the GBA with bad graphics yet, and this was no exception. The backgrounds could be a little bland, but that only made the real highlight stand out: the characters and their animation. Everything from Popple freaking out to Luigi jumping on a water-bloated Mario was terrific.

Sound: Great sound effects and catchy music. I've had the battle theme stuck in my head all morning. Nothing award-winning like something from Silent Hill 2, but it did the job.

Up next: Deus Ex: Invisible War!
 
I don't know if I'd have been able to finish half the games I played from the mid 80s to the early 90s if I hadn't been able to pause whenever I wanted. Super Mario Bros. 3 comes to mind. Oof.

Not that hard once you find out about the flutes! Of course it probably took me months to find even one back in the day. :ganishka:

Up next: Deus Ex: Invisible War!

Umm... Enjoy!:magni:
 
Not that hard once you find out about the flutes! Of course it probably took me months to find even one back in the day. :ganishka:

Yeah, that was pretty much the only way to go back in the day, other than leaving your system on overnight for many, many nights (which parents didn't seem to appreciate).

Umm... Enjoy!:magni:

It's not bad so far, but it's nothing like the original. You can clearly see that it was designed for the Xbox first (I'm playing it on PC), especially when it comes to the size of the environments. I also read about the dumbing down of the various systems from the original, so I went in knowing what to expect. I read a lot of reviews that said it was worth playing, but to go in knowing that it doesn't even compare to the first game.

I'll let you know what I think of it as a whole once I beat it. I've heard it won't take me that long. :ganishka:
 
Alright so I need to split this in sections because it's gotten big. In summary, this post is about Remedy and how great I think they are.

Quantum Break review

Quick update Long meandering post on Quantum Break, which I've completed. I'd skipped it back in 2016 because I was under the impression it had gotten mixed reviews and I had concerns about Microsoft's streaming technology for its live action parts. Looking back, critics seemed mostly positive, but that streaming tech really does blow. I had frequent buffering issues even with a solid fiber connection and that definitely didn't come from my side. Probably best that I didn't attempt this with DSL.

That aside, I had a good time with it. It's a time travel story and like most such stories, you really need to suspend your disbelief hard for it to work. But within that genre, I found it more interesting than say, Tenet. The gameplay's fine and revolves around "time powers" that are cool to play with. It's not hard to see how that led to Control's gameplay a few years later.

The live action segments are probably the weakest part of the game. They're basically a TV series integrated within the story of the game, a remnant of Microsoft's Xbox strategy of the time. They're not the weakest because they're bad, although clearly it's not on par with prestige TV. It's more because they mostly focus on side characters that aren't all that relevant to the story. But the acting is good, and both the action and special effects are fine.

The third big mechanic is the fact the main villain has to make choices inbetween acts and those impact both the live action segments and the action game segments. It's a great concept, but as is often the case, isn't fully realized. Out of curiosity I checked all choices and as expected they only impact small, almost cosmetic stuff. The main events occur regardless of what you choose.

That's too bad, because "the illusion of choice" works better in theory than in practice. For reasons of budget and scope, few games offer real choices that drastically alter the course of events. The original Deus Ex did and it's a moment that remains etched in my memory to this day. Cyberpunk 2077's DLC, Phantom Liberty, also does and I have to admit I was extremely surprised (and very pleased) when I found out. I understand why that's difficult to achieve, but if you can't do it I'd prefer that you didn't pretend otherwise.

Why Quantum Break matters with respect to Control & Alan Wake 2

Anyway, Quantum Break is a cool game despite these complaints and is well worth the few dollars it must cost nowadays. There's another reason I hadn't really bothered with it yet, despite intending to "someday": I thought it wasn't part of the "Remedy Connected Universe". For those who don't know, that's a thing Remedy officially started with Control where they decided to do a kind of multiverse with all their IPs. Maybe it's because it was published by Microsoft, maybe it's because it reused the same actors (specifically Courtney Hope) in Control... Whatever the reason, I was completely wrong.

Quantum Break is actually rife with references and, incredibly, teases both Control and Alan Wake 2 years before those titles came out. And it's not even vague about it! There are "AWE" references all over the town, there's mention of a mysterious bureau, there's a video showing Saga Anderson and Alex Casey working on Alan's Wake's disappearance. More importantly, one of Quantum Break's key characters also ends up being a key character in AW2 and is geared to perhaps become the main antagonist of said "RCU". I immediately figured that out when I started QB and honestly I was impressed by the move.

This leads me to why I suddenly went through Quantum Break: my friend Jeremy told me I absolutely had to before doing the Alan Wake 2 "Night Springs" DLC, which I can't thank him enough for. Long story short, Shawn Ashmore, the main actor from Quantum Break, has a small role in AW2 as sheriff Tim Breaker. Means nothing much on its face, especially since Remedy likes to use the same actors in different IPs... right? Except it does actually mean something.

Alan Wake 2's "Night Springs" DLC

The Night Springs DLC is short (about 1h30 to 2h to finish) and is a collection of three fun "what if" episodes, "Night Springs" being a spin on "The Twilight Zone". The first two follow Rose (Alan Wake's "biggest fan") and Jesse Faden (Control's protagonist) respectively and are written like kitschy fever dreams. Cute and fun to play but nothing more. The third one clearly is the star of the show. I don't know if it's because it was 3:00 am and 36 °C or something but I was shaken by its title alone: Time Breaker. "Sam Lake, you son of a bitch" was pretty much my reaction.

Having played Quantum Break put Tim Breaker's experience in AW2 in a whole new perspective, and the "Time Breaker" DLC kicks that into overdrive. It starts right off the bat with what's basically a fourth-wall-breaking announcement by Sam Lake and Shawn Ashmore than Quantum Break 2 is in production, even with confirmation that it'll feature live action segments again like the first game.

It then proceeds to send Shawn on a fun and kitschy adventure in pursuit of Door/Hatch that manages to end with a very satisfying twist, and in the midst of that you get a call back to QB's most poignant loose thread: "I'll come back for you". I like to think that it takes a lot to move my cold, desiccated heart, but these past three days have turned me into a real Jesse/Tim-Jack/Beth "shipper". Their love must be realized!!! I demand it!

I'm sold on the "Remedy Connected Universe"

I'll conclude this with an anecdote. Years ago, maybe when Quantum Break first came out actually, Walter told me he'd been under the impression that I was a hardcore Remedy fan. That wasn't really the case, although I had loved the Max Payne games, not so much for their gameplay than for their writing. I'd played a borrowed copy of the first Alan Wake and had found it interesting as a survival horror take on Stephen King, with impressive narrative innovations (like giving objective hints in the music with "The Poet and the Muse"), although its gameplay was lacking.

Ever since Control I've been a bona fide fan, especially since so few developers nowadays take risks and show narrative ambition. Alan Wake 2 was a revelation too, like they really have found their groove and have the means to realize their ambitions. And now, having experienced this, I'm really fully on board with the Remedy Connected Universe. Let's fucking go, I'll preorder whatever game they throw at me.
 
Deus Ex: Invisible War was about what I expected after reading up on it before playing. Much smaller scale than its predecessor, mainly due to it being designed for Xbox first and not PC. Really would've liked a better PC version instead of a port of the Xbox game, but oh well.

I felt the same way about it as I did when first playing Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect was one of the best games I've ever played (thanks @Walter!) and ME2 felt dumbed down by comparison, even though it appeared slicker. The systems were simplified and the game just felt smaller. I didn't hate either ME2 or IW, but they were so much less than their originals that they couldn't help but be disappointing. Both ME2 and IW also ended up taking you right back to where you left off in the first games with the appearance of progress.

Next up: Far Cry!
 
I've been playing Ghostwire: Tokyo by Tango Gameworks, which I got for free on the Epic Games Store. It's a first person shooter set in modern Tokyo that centers around traditional Japanese mythology, where you play a guy with mystic powers fighting against some evil shaman, basically. People have disappeared and you must free their captives souls while fighting a variety of "urban legend" style monsters, with some appearances by traditional Yokai as well.

The game got a 75 average on Metacritic and so I wasn't expecting to be blown away, but it's actually been really fun so far. It takes a little time getting used to the various powers you have at your disposal (which you get progressively), but the gameplay mechanics are overall relatively classic and competently implemented. I can see ways in which they could be improved for a KB&M user, but I'm guessing the game was build with controllers in mind, so that's that.

Anyway, the star of the game is Tokyo, which is lovingly recreated in with various landmarks and the like. Reminded me of Rockstar's versions of LA and NYC, except since it's in first person the attention to detail here is staggering. It really feels like you're walking around in Tokyo a lot of the time, which is really cool. It's just a really refreshing setting in general, including the story and enemies.

One thing I realized yesterday is that the map is really big, and after a cursory look it seems critics complained the game is too long and becomes repetitive near the end, so I'll see if I get tired of it eventually. As it stands though, it feels underrated to me and definitively worth checking out.
 
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