demagogue on 10/9/2022 at 04:12
I've been playing the
Tanoa Antistasi campaign in Arma3 after being impressed by a Drewski (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lotXXpc0-pI) LP video on one of them. (I picked Tanoa instead of the more popular Altis because guerilla warfare is just better suited to jungles you can disappear into than big open plains.) It's about as pure a war sim as it could be for what it is.
There's this persistent world where all the towns and bases and factories, etc., are controlled by some occupying force, and your job is to just take them for your side one at a time. And then you get an income and can buy equipment on a schedule. It's an open world, so you do what you want. That's the part I really like, just being in the world, looking at a map, and coming up with a plan for this next outpost or equipment cache, or taking on a quick procedural mission. I mean I'm in the early days so I'm still just trying to get better equipped to get to the part where I can start taking on caches and outposts. Larger cities and bases are definitely late-game places I stay away from for now.
But I like the idea of a game world that's just persistently there and you do what you want, but there's always something to do. You just save the world when you're done (GTA style, as in it saves the big world changes but resets things like NPCs and vehicles when you restart) and you can pick up where you left off pretty much indefinitely.
But I like it better than, say, Day-Z. In Day-Z there really is no good end you're shooting for. Or like The Walking Dead (the TV show, not the narrative game, sorry) or Dwarf Fortress. There's no real "winning", there's just seeing how long you survive and hopefully you have some good stories along the way. This has that element too. But you do have an actual end goal you can make progress towards, taking back your island or province one town and depot at a time. So far I'm digging that and am motivated by it like I wasn't for DayZ or Dwarf Fortress, or not for long.
I've been reading people talking about spending more than 150 hours and still chugging. But I think the idea is you just play when you want, and you can see yourself make progress over time. Incidentally it can be played single or multiplayer. It's actually built around small teams, and if anyone would ever like to join in sometime, that's a thing that can happen. But anyway it's playable enough as single player as well and I've been having fun in the early stages of it.
Tomi on 10/9/2022 at 18:30
I just couldn't stop playing Plague Tale, and devoured the last few chapters last night. Henke was sort of right that the best parts may already have been behind me at chapter 7, but the latter half of the game was also good and it did have some terrific moments. I didn't expect things to turn that supernatural, but the finale for example was indeed truly epic. I also thought that the actual gameplay got more interesting towards the end, even though there wasn't much need for stealth in the last few chapters.
What I really loved in Plague Tale was the story and the characters. Apart from a few time-consuming puzzles there was always something interesting going on, and I found the story rather fascinating from the beginning to the end. It helps that the game looks fantastic too. Because Plague Tale is such a story-driven game, I didn't even mind the simple gameplay and the linear level design - making things more complicated probably would have affected the delivery of the story in a negative way.
Now that it's all over I don't know what game to pick up next. It'll probably be something totally different.
Thirith on 11/9/2022 at 09:19
While I've mainly been playing Sekiro (and slowly sucking the teensiest bit less at it), I'm also playing Battlefront 2's single player campaign. It's not a good game, the shooting and movement feel too wooden for that, but the engine does a fantastic job of bringing Star Wars environments, creatures, armours and vehicles to life. The campaign is short and easy enough to just enjoy for the aesthetic, if you really like OT Star Wars' visual identity. It's difficult not to wonder what a proper, well-designed Star Wars shooter with these production values could be, mind you.
henke on 11/9/2022 at 09:46
Yeah I did like Battlefront 2's SP as well, for the same reasons. A modern Star Wars FPS could be really cool if someone threw a lot of money at it.
Currently playing:
TOEM - a neat lil photo adventure. Like Umurangi Generation it's fun to just explore the environments and check obectives off a checklist. Unlike Umurangi it doesn't really have anything to say, and is just a lightweight and fun lil thing that I'll forget the moment I'm done with it.
Teardown - still playing this, still in the early EA-content section of the game. S' good!
Thirith on 15/9/2022 at 06:53
I've now finished the Battlefront 2 SP campaign (including the three free DLC missions), and it's sad, really: there's a lot of effort that went into the characters and cutscenes, but the gameplay itself rarely feels like anything other than whatever they could cobble together from the multiplayer assets. Perhaps the most memorable sequence is in effect a rail shooter putting you inside an AT-AT - and it's not good if you've got a shooter that is most memorable when it is pretty much on rails. I feel sorry for the people who worked on the campaign, because a lot of work did go into it, but the part that needed the work most, the actual campaign design and gameplay, is so mediocre at best that it makes the whole thing come across as a lazy, minimalist effort. Which isn't fair, because they try within the constraints they have, but obviously there were too many constraints and probably not enough time.
Also, it's clear that they were told by someone to have as many cameos from the movies as possible, and it'd be a better, tighter, more coherent story without those. They never feel like anything other than, "Oh, here's the mandated cameo by character X."
Anarchic Fox on 18/9/2022 at 02:17
I finished up Dragon Quest XI, beating the absurd postgame boss only to discover I missed a strategy that would have stripped its armor and reduced its number of turns. Oops. Oh well, at least I finally got, um... two difficult fights, deep into the postgame. A fantastic game, ruined by its low difficulty. On the plus side, I never had to grind. Also, Sylvando remains the best character in the franchise.
I've also been playing Splatoon 2, whose movement is a joy but whose gunplay is mediocre. It's a console shooter though, so no surprises there.
Teaching responsibilities have compressed my free time, and I've been spending it reading more than gaming, so I'm quiet.
Briareos H on 19/9/2022 at 09:00
A friend and I are just out of the first region (out of eight) in Generation Zero. The game is part of an ongoing sale and I really dig the aesthetics of a Swedish-centered co-op open world game so I thought it was worth a try. Most of its core components (gunplay, traversal, level design, stealth, leveling, quests, narration, loot and crafting) are unremarkable but not outright bad either, and it has been a pleasant enough experience for us.
I'm afraid the overall gameplay loop is going to get repetitive soon, i.e. that each region will be like the others without much development or new dynamics, but we'll see. For now, exploring Scandinavian forests and small Swedish towns is fun and sniping robots in a clearly Stålenhag-inspired retro universe is enough to keep us going.
WingedKagouti on 19/9/2022 at 09:55
I started playing Darksiders Genesis over the weekend and it's been a bit of a mixed bag, the majority of my issues are down to Strife feeling a bit wonky with his twinstick shooting being based on ammo and a charge meter while melee is just bashing buttons for various combos (as per usual Darksiders melee). It doesn't mesh too well for me. It's also very clearly designed to be a coop experience, so single player also feels clunky with having to switch between Strife and War to get through puzzles (on the other hand, as a single player there's no arguing about which character needs to do what).
But other than that, it's been fun enough for me to still want to see it through to the end. The occasional banter between War and Strife helps a lot and when the gameplay itself is good, it's exactly what I want. So far it gets a thumbs up from me, despite my gripes.
Rizopas on 19/9/2022 at 11:15
Got back into playing
Diablo II again, and no, not the remaster, original version with the (
https://pathofdiablo.com/) Path of Diablo mod.
Been one of my favorite games for a long time, just have to take breaks from time to time :p
Favorite parts about the game would probably be how you can make so many different wacky builds with so many different classes, and the grinding for levels and items, sometimes it does get quite tiring :rolleyes: but I have mostly had much fun trying to get those few more items I need for a build.
If anyone else is looking to replay this game, I highly recommend the (
https://pathofdiablo.com/) Path of Diablo mod, it improves and adds so many things, which are listed on their website.
Anarchic Fox on 21/9/2022 at 04:49
Quote Posted by Rizopas
If anyone else is looking to replay this game, I highly recommend the (
https://pathofdiablo.com/) Path of Diablo mod, it improves and adds so many things, which are listed on their website.
Does it let you respec? I remember that being my big problem with Diablo 2, having a fun summoning build with a Druid that hit a brick wall at some boss, then being stuck with that build.