Tomi on 9/9/2019 at 10:17
Quote Posted by Thirith
The Alpine is considerably more temperamental than the Mini, but I definitely get the impression that when/if I learn to drive better, in particular in corners, it'll lend itself to a more fluid driving style.
That it certainly does, Alpine excels on stages with a lot of tight corners, and I find it really fun to drive. For me the hardest thing is actually going
straight, just a small correcting move on some fast straight in Finland can be too much on my gamepad, and I find myself wrapped around the nearest tree. I think that's one thing where a racing wheel might come in handy.
I love the Alpine, but I really wish that they could install some better windscreen wipers on it - it's so annoying to drive every other stage with such a dirty windscreen that you can barely see what's in front of you!
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
I dunno what difficulty you're playing on, but if you're not aware of it, something to keep in mind is how the difficulty works in DR. The fastest times are the same no matter what difficulty you're on
Huh? I'm on my way to the Masters Championship, and I had no idea that that's how it works. :D In a way it does make sense, but I would have thought that the fastest drivers on harder difficulties are at least a little bit faster. However it works, I must say that I find the difficulty just about right for me. I'm winning races now, but I got to admit that I do occasionally restart a stage if I totally screw up. I guess I shouldn't do that, because that'll only make things more difficult for me in the future if I want to play "fair", but sometimes I can't resist the temptation. :p
Thirith on 9/9/2019 at 10:48
I did my first nighttime race yesterday - the last stage of a six-stage visit to Germany - and man, that was intense, in particular in VR. In general, while the overall look of Dirt Rally is somewhat muddy (probably more so in VR), I love the way the game uses lighting. Monte Carlo with its icy patches feels twice as dangerous whenever I cross into a longish bit that's in shadows, because the lighting convincingly makes it look and feel colder, which in turn makes me all the more wary that more ice is coming my way. On the other hand, there are those bits that are clearly in the sun, but the sun mostly serves to reflect off the ice on the road. It's not a showy game at all, but it uses a naturalistic palette and convincing lighting to fantastic effect.
Renault on 9/9/2019 at 17:17
Working on a couple of things right now:
Observation - Kind of a strange game where you play the AI on a space station that's having some major issues. Picked it up on sale on the Epic Store after I read a few thing about it. Seems pretty cool so far, although the interface is confusing and a lot of times its hard to figure out exactly what to do. Not a lot of hand holding here, which some may like or not. There's a pretty good mystery introduced early on, so I think I'll stick with it for awhile. I've seen in mentioned a few times here, but I thought I'd do the same again since its on sale right now for 15 bucks.
Hitman - The new one, not the really new one, but the reboot, from a couple of years ago. Why haven't I played this game yet? Really fun, open levels that give you a zillion different ways to accomplish your goals. Tons of replay value. Great locations/settings. Can't believe I played Sniper Elite 4 (which I also thought was really good, btw) before this. There are a few things that bother me - I'm still trying to figure out their rule set for some of the stealth (like who recognizes you and who doesn't, what outfits let me go where, etc), but in a way that's part of the puzzle to tackle. I don't think I'll get enough before it's done, so I'll probably roll right into Hitman 2. And and also, the story is a confusing mess which I don't understand at all and frankly don't really care, but it seem unnecessarily obtuse.
Yonder - Kind of a silly game, but totally chill and easy going. No violence at all, you can't kill anyone or be killed. It's just completing tasks (mostly fetch type stuff) and crafting. The crafting system is cool in itself, but the depth of it seems unnecessary for playing the game. But it's just fun to explore the fairly decently sized world and discover new things without the fear of being hit over the head with a giant mace and having to start over again.
Malf on 9/9/2019 at 19:32
If you're going to get Hitman 2 anyway, may as well get it now and play the first game through it. When they added the new features to 2, such as crowd stealth, they went back over the old levels and added them to those.
Thirith on 10/9/2019 at 12:19
I played Wolfenstein: The New Colossus over the last couple of weeks and haven't played Hitman for a while, but I definitely want to return to it soon to replay the Colorado level.
What I have played as well recently is season 3 of The Walking Dead, and while it's not great and suffers from the diminishing returns common to zombie stories and Telltale games, it's not bad on the whole. However, I've just started the fifth episode and my impression is that it heaps on some of the things that were annoying in previous episodes. Because everything's more urgent and they're working towards the resolution of the story arc, it's just all turned up to 11. People with anger management issues turn into irrational assholes, characters are made into flat caricatures of themselves. I've only played about a third of the episode, but so far I have the impression that they didn't exactly put their best material into the final episode, which would be a shame.
Renault on 10/9/2019 at 15:24
Quote Posted by Thirith
haven't played
Hitman for a while, but I definitely want to return to it soon to replay the Colorado level.
Just got to this level last night. It seems like a behemoth so far. 4 targets, and a compound full of hostile, machine gun carrying mercenaries. It's making every level before it look like a training mission. On one attempt, after stealth failed and all hell broke loose, I just decided to try to shoot my way through the level. Ill advised! They just kept coming and coming. I'll have to go back to my stealthy ways. I think some serious planning is going to be required here.
Malf on 11/9/2019 at 09:02
If I remember correctly, I think the Elite Commando dudes have unrestrained access to most areas in Colorado. NOT the breaching team, but the dudes with berets. There should be an outfit of theirs you can change in to in an open trailer just in front of the main house.
The kill where you take advantage of one of the targets' OCD is one of my favourites in the entire series :D
Renault on 11/9/2019 at 13:45
I saw notes about that but didn't pursue it. I did have fun though dropping the giant hay bale on top of the woman commando. What a way to go.
Malleus on 12/9/2019 at 19:37
I started playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider recently. I enjoyed the previous two, even though they didn't blow my mind, but I'm really liking this one. I liked how you can set different difficulty for combat, exploration and puzzles. Set puzzles to hard and combat to easy, but turns out this game doesn't have that much combat, which is a very big positive surprise. I also liked how it has melee enemies early in the game (I recall only soldiers in the previous games before the endgame). Also love the environment and the lore too (the secret maya migration to the south, the story of the jesuit mission, etc), although that was good in the other games too. I'll have to see the endgame yet, but this might end up being my favorite of the new TR games.
henke on 14/9/2019 at 12:04
Finally picked up Resident Evil 2 (the new one), and it is so good. Just got my butt kicked by the eyeball guy.
Also played the first couple missions of Gears 5, aaaand I'm not really feeling it. Then again I haven't really enjoyed any of the GOW games, yet somehow I've played all of them at least a little bit. What's wrong with me.
