henke on 7/5/2023 at 14:50
Yeah! And I'm definitely up for racing with you. :) There's not much road-raging tho since there's no player collisions.
henke on 7/5/2023 at 16:15
ALSO I just played a new game.
I played the demo of
That Which Gave Chase in the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc a few years back and the full version just got released yesterday.
[video=youtube;iUHGtDDDSCA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUHGtDDDSCA[/video]
(
https://aslakkh.itch.io/that-which-gave-chase)
Roughly 1 hour long horror game which is very CHILL. It's a good one.
David on 9/5/2023 at 13:52
I travel quite a bit for work these days, so I picked up a Steam Deck to play on the plane and in hotel rooms when it's raining. Beats trying to figure out what foreign-language TV to watch!
So - I'm currently going through my backlog of games and thing I only played once years ago. On the most recent trip I fired up both Dishonored and The Outer Worlds. Both ran great, and worked right out of the box on the Steam Deck, which is a great bit of kit.
JakeOh on 11/5/2023 at 07:30
Time for my annual Bioshock replay, gonna play all 3 games and maybe System Shock this year on top :ebil:
Malf on 11/5/2023 at 09:14
I've kinda ground to a halt in Encased, as the pacing is a bit off. There's not much driving me forward at the moment, and the current main quest I've got, to choose between factions, is really quite dull. It still looks nice and plays well enough with no real jank, but it all feels a little... off.
So I'm still going through Hitman 3 levels, which I'm really taking my time with, and thoroughly enjoying. My new card also has enough brute force to turn on all the ray-tracing bells and whistles too, which makes it really quite pretty, and to be honest, probably makes a more noticeable difference in this game than it does in CP2077 (to my eyes).
I've just hit level 20 mastery on Chongqing and am about to move on to the next level, but that one looked spectacular with RT on; lots of neon and rain.
I still love the game, but I really do resent that it has to be online in order to save progress. It strikes me that the game would probably play fantastically on Steam Deck, but the online requirement is holding it back.
I will be giving Freelancer mode a look once I'm done with the Hitman 3 campaign.
I'm also enjoying Stranded: Alien Dawn, although I'm close to reaching the limits of what is possible, and it needs to add a LOT before it can fill that RImworld-shaped hole it's so desperately trying to fit in to, More creatures, more alien flora, human / alien visitors / raiders, hospitality options, a detailed medical system with decent bionics support, and, oh yeah, an end goal.
To be honest, I play Rimworld with no end-goal in mind, preferring to build a long-lasting, working community that generates interesting stories (can you tell I'm a Dwarf Fortress player?), but even so, something to aim for could really help focus Stranded.
I was really enjoying Hi-fi Rush, but got distracted by Guardians of the Galaxy, which is currently 70% off. And it's a fantastic game! Well written, great voice-acting, tight gameplay and a decent size.
Yes, it could do with less QTEs, and it's very linear, so I don't foresee replaying it any time soon. But that doesn't detract from it being a truly good game and a very pleasant surprise, much like the first Guardians movie.
Sulphur on 12/5/2023 at 03:50
Yeah, both Hi-Fi Rush and GotG are great linear experiences, I was a little cool on GotG by the end because the combat is quite repetitive and not mechanically engaging regardless of how much you kit out the characters, but it's very well-done narratively, which was enough to hook me into seeing it through to the end. I hit up Hi-Fi Rush whenever I wanted a concentrated blast of rhythm-y joy, and it pretty much delivered that consistently, even if it has a fairly saggy middle section.
Thirith on 12/5/2023 at 09:18
Yeah, the main thing that's kept me from playing GotG is the combat, which very much doesn't sound like my thing.
I've started playing Little Nightmares 2, and while it's gorgeously done, so far I'm rather lukewarm on it. In part it's that the beginning feels like discarded ideas from the first game that simply aren't as memorable, in part it's that the gameplay itself is still perfunctory and the jumping, running and climbing don't feel particularly good. Perhaps I've simply had enough of games such as this, because while I remember loving Inside and liking the first Little Nightmares, I barely remember that game's DLC, and I was rather meh on Somerville (another game that plays very similarly). There's only so much you can do with the genre, and in terms of style and atmosphere they all tend towards the grim and grotesque in ways that are starting to feel quite limited.
Malf on 12/5/2023 at 12:03
Well, GotG's combat isn't really hard, just a little dull. It's very easy to button mash your way through.
And unlike some third-person games, there are remarkably long stretches without any combat at all, just light puzzle solving and banter with some interesting consequence-laden choices.
Much like Titanfall 2, I put off playing this for a long time, but it turns out, it really is as good as the reviews say.
I didn't play any of it last night however, instead choosing to get stuck in to Mendoza in Hitman 3, which was utterly wonderful.
I think I've mentioned before, but I always, ALWAYS do Silent Assassin with Suit Only for my first run through of a Hitman level, as I find it teaches me the most.
And this level was a delightful onion to unpeel, with numerous tasty layers. One part homage to the first true level in Blood Money, one part Hitman 2's Santa Fortuna, topped off with a smattering of Paris, there's a lot to like about this level, with an utterly wonderful pay-off.
Anyone who doesn't tango with Diana at the end that first time through is a soulless husk.
I'm now looking forward to going back in and mopping up the various challenges without the restriction of not being able to utilise disguises.
I must say, so far I have been incredibly impressed with the quality of the levels in the third game. IOI just seem to get better and better every time, and I love that they're not above going back and buffing up the old levels from previous chapters with new features.
I'm really keen to see what they do with the Bond license, but I expect something with a lot more action and a lot less downtime and planning.
Thirith on 12/5/2023 at 14:33
Oh, I'd prefer *challenging* combat to *dull* combat, and I have to admit that bullet-spongey combat is perhaps my biggest video game bugbear of the last ten years. I'd rather play something Sekiro-level hard and be really bad at it than play hours of boring combat.
Sulphur on 12/5/2023 at 15:03
Same. Combat that's there, but is kind of eh seems to me like a wasted opportunity and also a waste of time. And sure, while there's long stretches of no combat, it's also a long game so there's plenty enough combat and it's just... eh, fine, I guess, but it possesses this anti-energy that sucks the momentum out of the game every time. I appreciate that they tried to develop it a bit with the upgrade trees, but the encounter design doesn't ask for creativity from you, and neither does it really challenge you, and it always lasts long enough to be boring. The takeaway is I should have played it on Easy, I guess.
