What Are You Playing?

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Aazealh said:
What difficulty setting are you playing in? The higher ones make the game a non-trivial challenge in my experience.

I play the default first and go from there. I mean, it's not that it can't be challenging, but so far the hardest enemies have been the ones that you portal in or whatever, and they're harder by a long shot. Also, and I'm not complaining, but the checkpoints and such make dying almost a convenience, "Oh, I'm back where I was in the boss fight... with full health!" The biggest, coolest boss so far felt kind of perfunctory if that makes sense, like the game really didn't want me to lose and was on my side the whole time. The fix was in for me. =)

I don't know, something I've noticed about big, cinematic games in general lately is you get a little too much mileage out of your button presses. Like some of these "moves" might as well be quick time events because you'll push a button and it basically turns into a mini-cutscene of you kicking someone's ass, which is cool, but a little phony too (like if in Mario Bros you pushed the attack button and Mario just automatically jumped on and killed the nearest Goomba in range with no more input from you =). For contrast, in SotC, when you rode your horse next to a Colossi and jumped from it on to the Colossi's back or appendage, it really felt like you were controlling the action, awkwardness and all, and not vice versa because you were just applying the general controls in an unusual combination for that specific situation, and it felt like a genuine stretch because it was. Now there's so many contextual control schemes and streamlining that you basically just hit the action button to do anything. RDR2 for example, you can do SO MANY THINGS in that game supposedly, but there's really only so many buttons and combinations to input, so you're not so much assuming direct control to perform most of those actions manually as much as you're directing the game to perform those actions for you.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah the reason I asked is because I think for these types of games, going for the harder modes makes it so you need to be a little more technical/strategic with how you approach enemies. It might not fix it for you though, but I did find it challenging at times during my own playthrough.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Aazealh said:
Yeah the reason I asked is because I think for these types of games, going for the harder modes makes it so you need to be a little more technical/strategic with how you approach enemies. It might not fix it for you though, but I did find it challenging at times during my own playthrough.

I can definitely see that even in normal, and I'm not just face rolling or button mashing these enemies or anything either, but my philosophy is that the standard difficulty should be the best represention of the game as they want to present it, it IS the game, and the other modes should artificially increase or decrease that difficulty rather than it truly changing the mechanics of the core game ("here's the REAL game!") Unfortunately, while some games explicitly follow this philosophy, more grade on such a curve that standard is basically easy mode going by a more respectable name. In this case I could tell the developers were more interested in me experiencing this awesome boss fight than it kicking my ass. It's like a conflict of interest where the difficulty of the boss is like the game's own obstacle to the cool shit it wants to show me. =)
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Everything below will become irrelevant tonight when I start Sekiro... I just haven't decided yet whether to play on PS4 (ease, stability, comfort) or PC (flexibility, playtime, but potential run issues). All things being equal I'd grab the PS4 version and get it discounted on Steam later, but I'd just hate to be stuck, unable to play on PS4, while my wife watches SVU reruns all Saturday (the perfect time to be playing! =).

Maybe I'll just run to Fry's then for that DVI/HDMI adapter. :ganishka: (just picked one up at work, now we'll see if it works)


Until then, I'm still plugging away at God of War, though I fear I'm caught up in a series here rather than a singularly fulfilling experience; like, I still haven't met or even seen Thor or Odin yet and worry I won't in a significant way until God of War II 2! I'm also playing RE3 and Code Veronica on my phone, after completing the original RE2 that way recently, because I'm a maniac.


P.S. I didn't pathetically update my post in obscurity just because YOU ALL are too lame to make ones of your own in the interim. :daiba:
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Here you go Griff, I'm posting!

I beat RE2make which was really good, thinking of maybe doing RE3 at some point to continue on with my REtrain, but I may end up putting it off long enough to be playing RE3make so iunno!

I've been playing Super Robot Wars T(rather than Sekiro for now), which has an English version in the Asian regions where they can publish the game without worrying about US licensing issues. The Switch/PS4 are region free too. It's cool that the game has Cowboy Bebop and Harlock characters in it but I wish it was OG Harlock and not SSX ENDLESS VOYAGE or whatever modern one it's drawing from. Cool features of the PS4 version is you can insert your own audio tracks so you can put the actual openings/endings/background tracks from the original source if you have the MP3s, Cowboy Bebop is a kinda endless source of good battle animation background tracks.

Anyway, it's the first SRW game I've really dug into and it's pretty good, kinda typical tactics game kinda close to Fire Emblem but with a lot more stats to mess with. If you've ever been interested in SRW or care enough about mecha anime it's cool to check out, the last 3(including this one) have been translated into English so you can see if the series in those games interest you enough to give it a try!

Probably gonna get Sekiro a bit down the line when it's discounted in some small way, I still have Bloodborne to fully beat in the meantime if I'm chomping at the bit for Fromsoft action.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Dar Klink said:
Here you go Griff, I'm posting!

Now we're talking! :guts:

I beat RE2make which was really good

Despite my fans' nitpicks, this is still the best game experience I've had this year... so far. Very immersive and addictive frankly, plus it gave me weird dreams that caused me to act out in my sleep and even jump out of bed. So it must be doing something right!

thinking of maybe doing RE3 at some point to continue on with my REtrain, but I may end up putting it off long enough to be playing RE3make so iunno!

Well, if you really want to play it look how long it took to do RE2make, and there's no guarantee that's what they do anyway. I hope so because I think it makes more sense than Code: Veronica, especially if they're using this engine (and that + RE3 seems the easiest, best fit).

If they do Code: Veronica they should try something different with it. Playing it again it's pretty unique considering it's intersection between the classic and new style RE, and clearly with some MGS influence with the nifty camera direction and crazy international espionage/whatever plot, unfortunately it's also when the story blasted off across the 8th dimension and went from campy to embarrassingly ludicrous (before RE4 course corrected by being intentionally farcical =).
 
Just beat Dark Souls 3 and the DLC again. I would like to a short moment to say how much I fucking hate the painted guardians in the Halflight fight. I would rather fight two Midir's at once than those fuckheads.

Well, maybe not, but argh, seriously. I'd consider it though.

Now it's back to Tales of Berseria finally. I had to take a good three month break from it due to being back home to help take care of my grandma.

Also torn between going back to Sekiro now that DS3 is beat or deal with my continued Dark Souls addiction and finally start up Dark Souls 2 as it's the last of the Soulsborne I haven't played.

But Sekiro is the shiny painfilled new toy...
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Tabris said:
Just beat Dark Souls 3 and the DLC again.

Most complete Souls or most derivative? I still can't decide... maybe both! I sure loved it though. I can't help but think they got everything just right in that one despite the nagging feeling that only makes it somehow boring.

Tabris said:
Also torn between going back to Sekiro now that DS3 is beat or deal with my continued Dark Souls addiction and finally start up Dark Souls 2 as it's the last of the Soulsborne I haven't played.

Careful, I've been playing Dark Souls II on and off for 5 years; once you start you may never stop. I think I still need to solo some DLC bosses on NG+...

Tabris said:
But Sekiro is the shiny painfilled new toy...

I'm pretty addicted at this point, but the hardest fights annoy me more than they exhilarate. Maybe I just haven't fully embraced the combat, but it's hard when you've spent years learning that blocking is for suckers. =)
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished Phantasy Star IV on Wednesday. It was definitely the best of the bunch, and it wrapped up the series’ story nicely. I really enjoyed the 90s anime-style cutscenes, and the enemy sprites during battles were neat, especially Dark Force’s.

Next up is Mega Man X!
 
You've just sum up everything I thought back when I finished that great game ! You should do Landstalker when you can.
I pre-ordered the Mega Drive Mini, I hope all these games will be included (so I can do them again... even if I still have my boxed cartdriges from back then :guts:) .

Taking a break from Sekiro, I will play a bit to Yoshi's Crafted World on Switch.
 
For the life of me I just can't force myself to enjoy Sekiro. The combat feels like I'm playing a game of timing with block more so than fighting a tough enemy. Maybe the option of parry being the main antidote in this game turns me off. I can deal with the lack of weapons and armor, but something just isn't clicking. This is more of a ninja gaiden feel than souls, which I expected. That sense of fulfillment and wonder like I got from gaiden, demons, souls, bb, and nioh just isn't there. Moving back to finish re2.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I finished Phantasy Star IV on Wednesday. It was definitely the best of the bunch, and it wrapped up the series’ story nicely. I really enjoyed the 90s anime-style cutscenes, and the enemy sprites during battles were neat, especially Dark Force’s.

Next up is Mega Man X!

Awesome! I don't even think I ever finished it, but it's an amazing game. Easily my favorite of those.
 
I just finished Sekiro. Pretty cool game. The combat was quite a bit different from Dark souls and Bloodborne and it through me off for a while but I managed to get the hang of it eventually. I tried playing new game plus for a while but I think I'm done with the game for now. I wonder if we'll get some DLC for the game at some point.
 
In order to play other games I really got to stop playing these Souls games. But I managed to play a few over the last year or so:

  • Life is Strange: Before the Storm (Good prequel, Super Sad)
  • Castlevania: Rando of Blood (This is the SoTN prequel I been trying to play, pretty good!)
  • HellBlade: Senua's Sacrifice (I may had mentioned this before, but this game is over a year old and still sticks with me, highly recommend)
  • Resident Evil 2 (What more can I say, I fucking love this game for what it is and had a amazing time running through it 6 times!)
  • Berserk Band of the Hawk (Not that I didn't like it, but wasn't compelled to finish it either, very meh about it overall.)
  • Divinity 2: Original Sin (Started off liking it, but soon found it was shallow and repetitive, SOME of the stories are good in it, overall regret the time I had put into it. :judo: )
  • Red Dead Redemeption 2 (Its good, its big, and deep in many aspects. Much like the Witcher 3 I'm often a bit overwhelmed with it all. Can't really go wrong with Dead shot moments!)
  • God of War 2 (Holy Cow, amazing game! I really started to hate this series and I went in wanting to be critical on this game but it won me over and righteously so!)
  • Demon Souls (Yeah broke out the PS3 for a few days and blew through this game, years ago I had never finished it. Had a lot of fun and even edited some of my internet settings to go into a private online server and was invaded numerous times! I didn't gut the game or learn all its secrets but my linear play-through was really great!)
  • Until Dawn: In Patient (I like VR in doses, and this game overall was a let down. Short, and doesn't deserve to be associated with the first game. )
  • Tetris Effect (This is the VR game you should be playing. Awesome experience!)
  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance (I did enjoy this glitchy hard as fuck game. It was strangely fun finding exploits and the story is pretty engaging. Just sucks that you really got to work for it. The combat will probably chase you away if you're not determined to figure it out, I found exploits for the combat that allowed me get through most of the hell. Not a sign of a good game but again, I dug it.)
  • We Happy Few (I like it, but was not compelled to finished it. Maybe some rainy day, maybe not.)
  • Minecraft (God damn it, yes I know I'm real late on this bandwagon, but after my 3 brothers and me blew through all the Souls games we wanted another multiplayer experience together and we went simple. This game is pretty amazing and simple. I love building stuff out of Legos and that naturally translated to this game. It was fun just dealing with the small things and other BS. Nothing was ever too much to piss us off, and when we won big it felt really rewarding. It's just kinda hard to admit after playing through the Souls games that this is the game for you. :ganishka:)
  • Fallout 76 (You know, I jump in this game now and then. I do manage to have a lot of fun with but it also just doesn't hold my attention like the other ones did. Not a popular opinion but the glitches and mechanics don't really bother me honestly. I think it did need another year or so in the development oven.)
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
In order to play other games I really got to stop playing these Souls games. But I managed to play a few over the last year or so:
  • Until Dawn: In Patient (I like VR in doses, and this game overall was a let down. Short, and doesn't deserve to be associated with the first game. )
  • Tetris Effect (This is the VR game you should be playing. Awesome experience!)

If you like VR you should check out these games: Beat Saber, Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, Superhot VR, Moss, Wipeout: The Omega Collection, Thumper.
You might also want to keep an eye on these that are coming out soon: Blood & Truth, No Man's Sky Beyond, Iron Man VR.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Since we're talking VR, my bro-in-law has PSVR and had me try a couple games recently, namely Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, which was pretty immersive, and RE7 (been waiting for that invite =). RE7 was a little less impactful though because Rush of Blood really made you feel like you were physically present a couple different ways, specifically your "body," hands, the plot-explained rail movement, etc, and because I was already familiar with RE7 and what was happening. Pretty cool, though. I'd previously tried some demo movies, which were very cool, and Doom VR, which didn't work for me because I didn't like the teleporting.

On the subject, here's SNL with an effective sendup of modern games, and it happens to be VR (mainstream, baby)! It doesn't get very far beyond the premise, but it's surprisingly on point.

 
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Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Since we're talking VR, my bro-in-law has PSVR and had me try a couple games recently, namely Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, which was pretty immersive, and RE7 (been waiting for that invite =). RE7 was a little less impactful though because Rush of Blood really made you feel like you were physically present a couple different ways, specifically your "body," hands, the plot-explained rail movement, etc, and because I was already familiar with RE7 and what was happening. Pretty cool, though. I'd previously tried some demo movies, which were very cool, and Doom VR, which didn't work for me because I didn't like the teleporting.

Man, if wish I could make you try some of my PC stuff! Regarding teleporting, unfortunately a lot of games have relied on that until now because free roaming can make some people motion sick when it's not properly implemented.

On the subject, here's SNL with an effective sendup of modern games, and it happens to be VR (mainstream, baby)! It doesn't get very far beyond the premise, but it's surprisingly on point.


Oh yeah, saw it a few hours ago and they really nailed that one!
 
  • Divinity 2: Original Sin (Started off liking it, but soon found it was shallow and repetitive, SOME of the stories are good in it, overall regret the time I had put into it. :judo: )

It's Divinity: Original Sin 2. Divinity 2 is another game entirely.

Speaking of which, I beat that a few weeks ago. I'm of the opposite opinion though; I loved it. I enjoyed all the various things you could do to screw around in combat, not all of which I think were intended by the devs. Like how you could create ad-hoc barriers out of giant paintings, lug a whole bunch of barrels of oil around in case you decide to set some fireworks, chuck a barrel of Deathfog and teleport all your enemies into it one by one to instantly kill them all. And this is without getting into abusing elemental fields. I definitely could see myself returning to this game just to try out different party combinations, as well as to see the other characters' stories.

I recently started with Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs, which seems to be something a combination of Final Fantasy Tactics and Persona. It's pretty fun so far, and it's very funny, though I'm not too keen on how gameplay progression is literally all about filling out a massive checklist. Hopefully it won't wear out its welcome.
 
Hey guys.

A good friend of mine has loaned me his Vita and I've been enjoying quite a bit of games on it (Such as Persona 4 Golden) I'm near the end of the game and am wondering what to play next.

Is Chrono Trigger as good as people say it is? I've been wanting to play it for a long time. Though, I'm going to have to settle for the ps1 copy since I don't have a SNES to play it on (Unless if you can play it on 3DS?)
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Haven't had much time for playing games lately, but I did play through Sonic Adventure with my son over the past week or so. He loved it, but holy shit is it bad. Bad bad bad.

Is Chrono Trigger as good as people say it is? I've been wanting to play it for a long time. Though, I'm going to have to settle for the ps1 copy since I don't have a SNES to play it on (Unless if you can play it on 3DS?)

It's a fantastic game that has aged surprisingly well. But the ps1 port is actually the worst because of the disc loading times. The DS remake is the best way to play it these days, unless you have a modded SNES classic.
 
Yes it is! A great SNES RPG.



I would go with the NDS version (playable on the 3DS) over the PSX one.

Had no idea it was even on the NDS. I'll pick up a copy off of Amazon.
Haven't had much time for playing games lately, but I did play through Sonic Adventure with my son over the past week or so. He loved it, but holy shit is it bad. Bad bad bad.
Oh yeah, it is. I remember playing Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog on my gamecube as a kid and remembered loving it. Went back to it about 8 years later and hated both of them. :ganishka:
It's a fantastic game that has aged surprisingly well. But the ps1 port is actually the worst because of the disc loading times. The DS remake is the best way to play it these days, unless you have a modded SNES classic.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with the Nintendo DS version then. Super happy the 3DS is backwards compatible.

What's so good about the game in your opinion? I know little about it so try to keep it spoiler free please :griffnotevil:
 
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