NOW what are you playing?

Sulphur on 14/9/2019 at 12:51

idk man, Gears 5 is pretty good!

I mean, it's not super spesh or anything, it's just a very precisely engineered guns 'n guts third person shooter, like every entry before it. I love the art and world design of it (of course) more than anything - it is facking gorgeuhss. Maybe not as uber-detailed as God of War, but it makes up for that with a rock-solid frame rate thanks to dynamic resolution scaling.

Also, real-time cutscenes + 60 FPS + 1800p + post-effects pipeline with supremely clean image = almost early Dreamworks-level animated movie. In terms of real-time graphical fidelity alone for its cutscenes, I'd say it's remarkable.

Thirith on 17/9/2019 at 06:14

Pretty much for those reasons I think I'll get Gears of War 5 once it's come down in price, but only then. I like what I see in videos, but as a game I'm only mildly interested.

In the meantime, I'm now ready for my final(ish) push forward and downward in Subnautica. I've given my Cyclops submarine a nifty paint job, I've named it, and I've installed an espresso maker. I'm all set for Lava World.

Sulphur on 17/9/2019 at 09:29

I don't know if I'd want to own it as I'm not too fussed about its multiplayer (it should be a fun 3-player co-op game though), but it's easy to sample it with the Game Pass beta at the moment (still a dollar or two I think for the first month).

henke on 22/9/2019 at 12:29

Been playing a bunch of stuff.

Stories Untold - A spooky little text-parser-based thing, split into 4 episodes. Initially quite minimalist but it expands in interesting ways as it goes on.

A bunch of sockpop games - I started donating to the (https://sokpop.co/) sockpop patreon a while ago but really only got around to playing all the games they've released recently. 3rd person climbing/bird collecting game klyd was ok, so was thieving sim pilfer and metroidvania bobo robot. But the standout is bird-sim rook. It's got some really simple but pleasant flying mechanics, coupled with nest-building and hunger-management mechanics to keep you engaged.

Environmental Station Alpha - Very lo-fi metroidvania (kinda similar to Xeodrifter). It's got some cool mechanics tho, including a grapling hook that's powerful but difficult to use. I'm currently 2 hours into this and kinda hooked atm.

Ducktales Remastered - It's Ducktales alright. Eh, not really grabbing me tho.

Darksiders 3 - Yeah, I think I'm enjoying the gameplay more than DS1 (never played DS2), but I'm not sure I'm enjoying it enough to keep going. The checkpoints are sparse and whenever I get set too far back I loose all interest in going on.

The Spy Who Shot Me - a NOLF-alike that's heavily focused on shooting. Very fastpaced and slick retro FPS action, but the story isn't engaging me.

The Spy Who Shrunk Me - a NOLF-alike that's heavily focused on shrinking (and unshrinking) yourself and others. Kinda interesting, but the gameplay isn't doing much for me and the writing is groanworthy.

demagogue on 22/9/2019 at 13:51

I've been playing Void Bastards, and crossposted the (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149836&page=2&p=2430290&viewfull=1#post2430290vvvv) write up I did on it in its thread.

And speaking of FTL alikes, the other game I've been playing is Crying Suns. This is more a direct almost clone of FTL. It's a lot more cinematic. The pixel art aesthetic is fantastic. Cool music. It comes with a story which, while cool, I think stories aren't really great for roguelikes. It's not like on the 20th time playing it you're going to care about the backstory, and it'd just get in the way. It's almost inviting you to just go through it once. But anyway what counts is the gameplay.

So Crying Suns basically flips the inside and outside of the ship compared to FTL. The stuff happening inside the ship is basically static; you just click the jobs people do. And the outside is a grid where you actually move out units to battle in the field and eventually battle the opposing ship. Otherwise it's the same with the movement from sector to sector, fuel, debris, and bad guys hot on your tail. It doesn't have the same variety in gameplay as FTL, and there isn't a level up sector to sector (each one is a different faction with its different art and tactics, so it's more story development than gameplay development per se).

I'd say it doesn't have the magic that FTL has. But it's still fun to play in its own right as a grid-based pause-able space fighting RTS, and it looks amazing. I'm having fun with it. It probably did itself a disservice inviting people to compare it to FTL when it'd be better off having people take it as its own game.

WingedKagouti on 22/9/2019 at 16:32

Been playing Grand Theft Batman (aka. Arkham Knight) with the Epic freebie, and the car can go *bleep* itself. The fact that they forced it so hard makes the game less enjoyable than Arkham Origins. The flashback/story segments with the Joker can be a bit grating, especially when the game decides that you have to spend a biiiit longer staring at whatever the designers thought was amazing or revelatory before you can go on with the actual game. The On Foot sections with fighting, detective work, puzzle solving, platforming etc. are as good as in the other Arkham games, so there's at least that.

So far I'd say Arkham Knight is the weakest game in the Arkham series by far.

Tony_Tarantula on 22/9/2019 at 20:32

Can someone tell me whether Borderlands 3 is anywhere near as funny as #2?

TBH I'm not expecting it to be but it doesn't hurt to ask. Handsome Jack is a hard villain to top

froghawk on 23/9/2019 at 20:29

Quote Posted by WingedKagouti

It's also just too damn long. Arkham City ended kind of abruptly just when it seemed like it was starting to get going, so they overcorrected with a plot that climaxes and over and over and over again and refuses to end.

Sulphur on 24/9/2019 at 07:37

Quote Posted by froghawk

The plot's fine, it's about on par with the previous games in how throwaway some of it is, how overworked some more of it is, and how fairly all right everything else is. It's not a masterwork by any means, but it's got a hard nihilistic edge that tells you things are, in fact, ending. Plus the Joker clones angle houses one of the best moments in the entire series. 'You're going to be... spectacular.'

It's only too long if you go after the 200+ Riddler collectibles plus the sidequests and want to see all of that bullshit resolve into the 'true ending' - and frankly, I value my life and time too much to fuck around doing that shit.

Thirith on 24/9/2019 at 07:49

I think I liked all three of the main Arkham games; they all had bits that annoyed me, but on the whole I found them entertaining and well made.

I've just explored the Lava Castle in Subnautica and am now ready for the final base. (In fact, I found that one before the penultimate one and stood in front of a force field I couldn't open.) Which is good, because as much as I've enjoyed the game I am about ready for it to end. I definitely need at least some plot to get me through survival games; I think I'd tire relatively quickly of survival games that have little or no plot. Which is also why I'm planning to check out The Long Dark once its storyline is done.

I'm also finding that some of Dark Souls 3 is almost comically easy after the previous games. This morning before going to work I breezed through much of the Catacombs of Carthus, happened across the High Lord Wolnir and killed him without even trying. I love the way the boss is introduced and the atmosphere is fantastic, but his weak points couldn't be much more obvious if they had neon signs saying, "Hit *this*!"