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Post by TG Barighm on Jan 6, 2021 19:00:14 GMT -5
I think that I've seen enough of Cyberpunk.
The best way to describe it would be Watch Dogs, if Watch Dogs core combat and gameplay mechanics were lifted from Dead Island (NOT Fallout). You hack random shit like you would in Watch Dogs, you have to endure a lot of long, drawn out cutscenes, and the melee and gunplay mechanics are clunky, but serviceable and the RPG mechanics are wildly imbalanced but at least you do have the option to play different builds.
Frankly, when all is said and done, my biggest problem with the game...
...was the aiming. It's your standard poorly calibrated PC to console aiming typical of all eurojank devs. No matter how much I messed with it, I couldn't get the aiming to feel right.
But there is no denying that there is a deep gear and leveling system, the guns are actually very much like Borderlands and the iconic gear system is a good idea (if you find a named weapon you really like, you can keep upgrading and rebuilding it in the future), it's just so busted and imbalanced that you wouldn't see much benefit of actually using it. Just grab whatever, buy the perks that have obvious benefits (like carrying capacity, reload speed, charge moves for melee combat), and go at it. You need to play on the hardest mode before your decisions start to matter, anyway.
So, yeah, wait for the final version that a leaker apparently revealed will be released in June.
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Post by TG Barighm on Jan 7, 2021 6:58:36 GMT -5
SPIDERMAN: MILES MORALES-A lot of people have called this an expansion with little substance to call its own. So far Miles has been given a lot of freaky powers I'm pretty sure he doesn't have in the comics, but at least it does give this game a bit more identity. Still too early to say, although it mostly plays similarly. My biggest problem with the first game was its pacing, not its gameplay. If this game has better pacing than its predecessor, than it's already a good step above it.
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Post by TG Barighm on Jan 10, 2021 6:24:28 GMT -5
Okay, so Miles Morales isn't nearly as well polished as the previous game, and it doesn't have as much content, but if this is simply an "expansion" then it's a darn good one. And my biggest fear was avoided: no pacing issues! Some walking sequences, but they're pretty short save for one at the end that kind of wrecks the momentum at that point, but whatever. No forced stealth sequences. Bosses are...mostly back loaded, but what they do is treat special enemy types as mini-bosses when you first encounter them, so it still feels like there are a goodly number of bosses. Died a little too often because of stupid control skips, the dodge sense mechanic is not as reliable this time around and often times Miles would just...stop attacking, and I didn't enjoy Miles' powers as much as Pete's-although I'll admit his were way imbalanced and Miles' are not-but overall I'd consider this game just as good as the previous one if you enjoyed it.
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Post by acathala on Jan 10, 2021 18:16:19 GMT -5
I hated the stealth sections with a burning passion. Good that there isn't any. Still not going to buy it, not that I can, since all nonessential shops have been closed by our government. I just don't care about Miles Morales. Game posts should be forthcoming in the next couple of hours.
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Post by TG Barighm on Jan 13, 2021 6:28:03 GMT -5
SCOURGEBRINGER: A rogue-like that LOOKS like a Metroidvania upon first inspection, but it's actually a sort of melee orientated bullet shooter...which it's not, but that's the best way to explain it. You zip around the screen slashing enemies at close range while throwing off the odd gunshot while they shoot at you. The main goal of the action is to maintain control of the fight at all cost: get in every enemy's face, stun them, then beat them around non-stop. Don't let any enemy sit around long enough to get a shot off. It's actually very quick and intense without feeling like a bullet hell shooter. Being a rogue-like still bugs me, and I hate how much constant button mashing you have to do-you're really going to put your fingers through a workout-but this game really hits me in one of my gaming flaws, which is the inability to focus on multiple targets at once, which is something I've never really addressed. And studies have shown when you do things that you're weak at and you struggle to focus on, your brain experiences significant growth. So...I'm gonna keep playing it. Unlike most games that give me trouble like this, it feels like I CAN actually beat it, I just need to get better.
CROSSING SOULS: A crazy supernatural sci-fi adventure set in the 80s that combines a Goonies-like adventure with pretty much every trope from that era. Its gameplay is similar, at times feeling like Earthbound mixed with Secret of Evermore mixed with 2D brawlers mixed with platforming mixed with...honestly, it's all over the place. That would be okay if the gameplay was tighter, but the controls feel unresponsive at times and the timings and hit boxes are weird. And the story is so dependent on referencing other properties from the 80s the main story, which is decently freaky a la Oxenfree, is greatly diminished. Honestly, I liked the idea of a mind-bending supernatural Earthbound meets Secret of Evermore story set entirely within a suburban neighbourhood. Turning your childhood street into an expansive RPG, where every house is a mind bending adventure in itself, sounds like it would be pretty cool.
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Post by TG Barighm on Jan 14, 2021 16:26:25 GMT -5
You might want to skip Immortals. Apparently the crux of that game's ENTIRE dialogue is woke stuff. They mostly make fun of it, but they're still constantly talking about it the entire game.
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Post by TG Barighm on Jan 15, 2021 4:33:28 GMT -5
SPIRITFARER: Charming, certainly, but for the most part you're just doing a whole lot of busiwork. Ultimately this busiwork is no different from any other game you play where the goal is to farm, cook, build, and make enough money to keep it all running, and it's no lesser because of it, but it's really not my sort of thing. If you really like chill games where you get to talk to people and give out free hugs, then I guess you'll enjoy it.
CELESTE: Super Meat Boy with an agenda...which is something about mental problems.
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Post by TG Barighm on Jan 15, 2021 16:32:10 GMT -5
SWORDS OF DITTO: Ever wondered what the old school Zeldas would be like if they had more modern RPG mechanics, like levels, gear, stats, and all that kind of min-maxing stuff? Well, look no further than the Swords of Ditto! It's pretty much that kind of game, even the dungeon layouts are the same, and the enemy variety, ability variety, and charming cartoony art style all lend themselves to a game with a deceptively large amount of depth and charm. Sadly, there is just one tiny little problem...it's a rogue-like, and pretty much the only thing you get to keep after dying is your levels. You have to rebuy and regear upon every death, and the world changes rather substantially every time. You also have a 5 in-game days time limit to do everything before the big bad boss challenges you, and of course you can't beat her on the first try. I haven't played enough of the game yet to have a good idea of how annoying the rogue-like mechanics are for this game. Hopefully they're not too bad because the overall gameplay and style is impressive.
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Post by TG Barighm on Jan 28, 2021 12:10:43 GMT -5
THE MEDIUM: Decent horror adventure game, but by no means anything like Silent Hill aside from the camera work.
*Blarg. Being a new game, it obviously doesn't run well on my computer, but at least it runs during the normal investigation moments. But during the "ghost world" scenes, the game produces two separate perspectives: a normal perspective and a ghost world perspective. The idea is to show what the medium sees in her mind is entirely different from the regular world and yet the two still overlap since she is bound to both worlds. It's a cool concept, sure, but it's essentially running two entirely different games in the same window. During these moments, my framerate tanks hard. It's just not playable.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 1, 2021 7:37:19 GMT -5
GUACAMELEE 2: I didn't like the original. I know platform and acrobatics is a big part of these kinds of games, but the kind of acrobatic challenges Guacamelee threw at you on a regular basis were so intense they would make my hands hurt...and we're talking the first hour of the game. Not even special challenges. Just regular gameplay. So far the sequel didn't have any of these challenges, and there are WAY more characters with different attack styles than the first game. And hey, co-op. I might actually enjoy this one. Btw, I've seen some people say the sequel is actually just an improved version of the first game. That's not true. It's definitely a new story.
Back to Control. It's been awhile since I played this, but winter is usually when I play games like Control. That is, games that make my PS4 run very hot. Cracking a window in -10c weather seems to keep the fan quiet. But I'm also juggling finishing off my outstanding 360 library, which is still loaded with monster games like New Vegas and Dragon's Dogma. And now I have GamePass and just three months to play all of THOSE games (normally not an issue, but some of the games include monster sized RPGs like Disgaea and DragonQuest 11). But all next week it's gonna be quite chilly, and I was hoping to knock off all my "hot" games this winter.
First world problems, eh? Anyway, I should be able to complete Control during this cold spell.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 13, 2021 18:43:08 GMT -5
MONSTER SANCTUARY: This was a pleasant surprise. It's a Pokemon clone, but it also plays like a Metroidvania. Combat executes via turns in a very standard monsters vs. monsters format, but the world exploration is very Metroidvania with your collection of monsters serving as your means of acquiring the unique abilities necessary to unlock secrets and advance through the world. Now I have never played Pokemon, but apparently this game differs by offering skills trees for every monster, so there is quite a bit of choice in how they can grow, and there is quite a bit of depth in how you build a party of monsters. There is also lots of equipment to find, and given how many monsters you will have, you will want every bit of gear you can find. It's light on story depth, so battling and exploring is pretty much your only incentive to advance, but it plays so well that's not really an issue.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 16, 2021 20:13:57 GMT -5
13 SENTINELS: An interactive novel that combines some strategy gameplay. The strategy part does introduce some nice ideas and I'd love to see a Front Mission game with these kinds of mechanics, but the interactive novel part is...well, an interactive novel. I suppose that would be fine if the story was interesting, but it starts with some very confusing time hops. It bounces from character to character, back and forth, far into the future and way into the past. Then it started adding woke elements...
Not surprised this game reviewed so well.
SAKUNA, OF RICE AND RUIN: The fuck is this game? Yeah, that's what I asked myself when it popped up at Amazon. Read the description, checked some reviews...you know what? It actually sounded somewhat interesting. Action/Platformer RPG with some farming elements. Reviewed rather well. So I gave it a go. So far I'm getting Brave Fencer Musashi vibes, although the combat isn't nearly so smooth. Still, the dungeoneering is solid and the way you learn skills and abilities, and can further upgrade them and your equipment with new skills and abilities, which can be FURTHER upgraded by completing various challenges, makes the whole thing pretty engaging. The farming is a bit of a pain and rather involved, but it's your main source of "leveling" since the hero is a harvest god and depends entirely on farming to level up. Which is a shame, because all of the game's other elements work well and needing every resource you find in dungeons to keep you going makes every trek feel more valuable.
One funny thing about this game is the story. It's pretty simplistic, like a more family orientated anime, and yet it's far easier to get interested in Sakuna's plight than all the time hopping going on in Aegis Rim.
**On further review, Sakuna actually gets worse as you advance in the game. The game has this funny habit of sequencing up attacks, so you could find yourself standing stock still attacking nothing but air because the game feels the need to queue up every button press and execute the entire string of a combo. Another example is the game's Forward Slash attack where pressing forward and attacking causes Sakuna to dash forward. The game plays better BEFORE you get this attack when simply pressing forward and attack saw Sakuna move forward to attack. After the dash, she's constantly dashing everywhere and into deadly traps when all you want to do is move towards an enemy. The added attack options actually makes the combat system less precise and makes me think the game was poorly balanced for non-Switch consoles. And, of course, the farming system gets a lot more complicated which adds even more tedious busywork to the game. Sorry, devs, but I don't give a damn about the history of rice farming. In fact, my mother has found people who eat nothing but rice have all sorts of nasty health conditions. This is a REAL shame, too, because the game's RPG mechanics are excellent.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 20, 2021 5:02:52 GMT -5
STAR RENEGADES: I was really looking forward to this one. It has a lot of really cool pixel art and special effects, and the battle system is...a wee bit too complicated, but it does work and can make battles very strategic. But WHY did it have to be a rogue-like? It could have easily been a damn good classical RPG. Instead, it had to be a rogue-like. Blarg. I really wanted to like this game, too. So far it's fine, but now I feel like I'll be pounded into the ground at any moment because "IT'S A ROGUE-LIKE BIATCH!!!".
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 22, 2021 3:27:33 GMT -5
FENYX RISING: Ubisoft's take on the Zelda formula, it essentially uses the recent Assassin's Creed RPG foundation and replaces it with a Greek mythology aesthetic. So far the cartoony vibes and the goofy dialogue works for it, and the world has a certain charm that Assassin's Creed lost a long time ago. Encountered some bugs, but I hear this game is generally well polished for an Ubisoft title, although it's sad to see the game store is a core part of the game's main menu. For all of the game's criticism, which wasn't really much, my biggest problems so far is the enormous number of puzzles-which isn't really a strike against it since it's no secret the game has tons of them-and the control scheme. They went with a really strange one with no option to change it. It's been messing me up in most fights. All that aside, the said it was Assassin's Creed doing Zelda and that is an apt way to describe the game, except this one is more endearing.
**SO MANY PUZZLES! Maybe if the puzzles didn't feel like so much busiwork this wouldn't be a bad thing, but as the games go on, they get much longer and more involved...and if you mess up, you have to restart the entire thing. FROM THE BEGINNING. Oh, and if you lose your internet connection for some reason, the game is like "OH NOES!! You can't buy shit from our online store!" and won't let up until your internet comes back. Yeesh.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 26, 2021 18:04:42 GMT -5
OUTRIDERS: BLAAAH...I was really looking forward to this game. Plays fine, but the always online and account requirements means this game is going to end up like some crappy live service game. The writing and acting was pretty awkward, too, and the controls feel...off. Which is a real shame because this game definitely captures Borderlands level of potential. The only good thing about the game was the graphics.
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Post by acathala on Feb 26, 2021 21:06:20 GMT -5
Watch dogs legion. Not what was promised as every character you can recruit, does not have a completely unique backstory and/or mission, and having no central character can make the game impersonal at times. Still in saying that, the gameplay itself is fun, and does give you different ways to complete them. For example in one mission I had a hit man targeting a potential recruit. Instead of going into the construction yard where said killer was hiding out, I instead hijacked a cargo drone and dropped it's cargo on him.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 26, 2021 22:13:18 GMT -5
Yeah, Watch Dogs sounded cool at first, but then it ended up as a GTA clone with a gimmick.
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Post by acathala on Feb 26, 2021 22:44:49 GMT -5
Driving is actually the worse part of it. You can recruit a person with driving skills but that's only really revelant a couple of missions. You can't change guys if you're being hunted, when you might actually want a getaway driver.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 27, 2021 1:48:25 GMT -5
As a guy who thinks driving around game worlds just to reach the next destination is boring as hell...well, I don't really need to say it. There's a reason I've never even bothered with Watch Dogs.
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Post by acathala on Feb 27, 2021 20:07:20 GMT -5
You would probably like the fact the fast travel points take away that then.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 27, 2021 20:50:24 GMT -5
Not really. Maybe in Watch Dogs, I can't say because I've never played, but I've played plenty of other open world games with fast travel options and they still find a way to force you to travel. During missions especially, so having the fast travel option usually doesn't help much.
I remember one particular mission in Sleeping Dogs. First, to start the mission, you had to drive to the police station which, because that was part of the mission, didn't have a fast travel point. You then had to drive to some place to look for a guy, but he wasn't there, so you had to drive to another location where another guy directs you elsewhere, and then you drive to the spot where, you guessed it, you are directed somewhere else. You go there, deal with the guy, but then have to go BACK to the previous guy to complete the mission. The whole thing took about 20 minutes, all of which was driving.
And then at the end some random mook shoots the guy you have to report too, scaring him, and failing the mission. Restart from the beginning.
And that's not even an extreme example. I remember a lot of that in GTA4 and even games like Saint's Row and Red Faction Guerilla. Those games at least had something to keep me going. One reason why I liked Far Cry Primal is because you WALK everywhere, so all of the content is condensed.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 28, 2021 5:48:18 GMT -5
CYBERSHADOW: Kind of an old school Ninja Gaiden crossed with Metroidvania. Nice stage design. Well worth revisiting previous levels with new abilities to find power ups. Weapon buffs can be very useful.
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Post by acathala on Mar 3, 2021 14:38:43 GMT -5
Hitman (2016) I mostly enjoyed this. However unless you're an online gamer(which I am not), you're not going to get the full experience. It is a beautiful game. The Italian level in particular is one of the best I've seen in any game.
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Post by TG Barighm on Mar 3, 2021 16:16:53 GMT -5
I tried Hitman because of some funny videos, but those videos don't properly express how much effort is required to plan assassinations. It's actually a lot of work. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I don't like stealth games at the best of times, and Hitman is a stealth game that also requires work. Also, it really pissed me off when I finally succeeded at a mission only to have it crash just as I'm about to reach the end goal, thus being forced to replay the mission.
And CYBERSHADOW has fallen off a cliff. Towards the second half of the game it decides to become a punishing NES era type game. This would be fine if it were consistent, but it's weird how you play most of the game as a perfectly good and fun little action game, and then at the very end it suddenly decides you need to beat entire levels in a single life. Worse, the game lacks the precision it suddenly starts demanding from you. The game is great...until you get the Dragon Dash which is a forward slash that executes during a sprint. The problem with this move is it executes seemingly at random, often executing when I just want to move forward, or not executing when I need it. Given the amount of insta kill spikes in this game, this quickly becomes a serious problem and you start dying repeatedly because the game can't tell when you want to dash and when you just want to run. Eventually I realized there is a dedicated dash button that helped a lot, but it can still happen. It may just be my crappy 360 controller, but still, dying repeatedly when it doesn't feel like it's my fault is a real buzzkill.
**Well, I managed to mostly finish Cybershadow. Got to the final boss, died a couple times but got close to beating him, was really annoyed by the dash issues during the fight...then realized getting this far into the game is probably the bigger accomplishment then beating the final boss, so I just called it there.
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Post by TG Barighm on Mar 7, 2021 8:25:06 GMT -5
DISGAEA 4: I remember the game being relatively simpler. All this campaign and map management stuff is a wee bit much. And battles feel more like puzzles. Hopefully they tone this down in D2 and 5.
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Post by acathala on Apr 2, 2021 22:24:18 GMT -5
I've been playing Skyrim again, and dear god the disarm shout is bloody annoying. Took me 10 minutes to find where my sword went.
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Post by TG Barighm on Apr 2, 2021 23:31:21 GMT -5
LOL! I remember that.
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Post by acathala on Apr 3, 2021 3:47:18 GMT -5
It's a reason to buy the candlelight spell.
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Post by TG Barighm on Apr 4, 2021 2:18:39 GMT -5
I remember losing a weapon I liked because of that. Got knocked away and I couldn't find it again.
Been playing Dark Souls lately due to some videos I watched. Attempting it with a low level run. Actually got all the way to the end without having any issues, but the final DLC boss is giving me headaches. Seems like there have been changes in the remaster because I don't remember this boss being so hard on shields, nor do I remember his hit zones being so wild and unpredictable.
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Post by TG Barighm on Apr 7, 2021 5:41:06 GMT -5
Well, turns out that boss required a simple change in timing philosophy...which I had forgotten about after all these years. Onto Dark Souls 2! This should be more interesting since I've only played that game once.
**DS2 has started out a whole lot harder. It's much less forgiving then the first, so a low level build is pretty much a slog until you can pick up some decent weapons. Once I got some better weapons, though, the game sped up immensely. I'm actually rather surprised how effective simple dodging has been. Normally I'm all shields, but in DS2 bosses are shockingly susceptible to dodges.
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