Dazert on 12/1/2023 at 16:31
I like the odyssey pubg but sometimes it's shown to be too impenetrable for the enemies. That was not the case in history. I'm playing Valorant at the moment and it to me is one of the most interesting game choices I've found on the play market at all. Even though I have never played it before I was able to handle the easy functionality and help from Valorant boost
Aviator Game on 15/1/2023 at 23:38
This weekend I’m playing through Thief 2014.
Harvester on 16/1/2023 at 20:34
I got Bioshock Infinite for free at the Epic Store. I'd already played Bioshock 1 and 2 years ago but not Infinite because my PC couldn't handle it when it was released. I finished it yesterday and while I enjoyed it, it won't become one of my favorites. The story can be a bit confusing to follow, but that's often the case and sometimes even intended for these multiple realities type of stories, and the story did have some surprising twists and turns that I enjoyed. I also liked Elizabeth as a sidekick, both from a gameplay perspective (not needing to protect her like in annoying escort missions that everyone hates in games, her supplying me with health/salt/ammo) as from a story perspective.
But I'm just not the intended kind of player for these games where you can experiment with a large toolset and many different strategies. I'm too efficiency minded, sticking to what's familiar and what works best for me. I ended up using the vigors too little, preferring just a limited subsection of the large array of weapons (machine gun, repeater, carbine, sniper rifle, RPG) and using the others too little, I chose some gear (clothing items) that suited me and didn't change the gear depending on the circumstances (like choosing gear that increases the damage to certain enemies when fighting them, for example). I tend to play these games like regular shooters instead of fully exploring all the possibilities. Even in System Shock 2 at the time, which I prefer to the Bioshock series, my builds were always very safe with good shooting skills and good hacking and maintenance, I never even experimented with psi powers. I'll leave the judgment of what that says about me to you... As I said, I still enjoyed the game and my regular shooting skills are more than sufficient to complete the game on Normal without too much difficulty. I just started Burial at Sea part 1, nice to be back in Rapture for a while.
TheRealSlimGarrett on 17/1/2023 at 17:46
Been having a Thief FM binge, just completed Home Sweet Home, one of Lady Rowena's finest.
A break from Thief for the next few days, think I'll break out The Saboteur, I'm in the mood for wiping out Nazis.
Thirith on 18/1/2023 at 12:56
There's a lot I like well enough about Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but I'm realising (or remembering, since I expect it was the same with the two predecessor games) that I'm not a big fan of these games using these large, convoluted hub areas. I preferred it when Tomb Raider had discrete levels, and within those levels there were still enough nooks, crannies and secrets to explore, but there's none of that back-and-forth.
In a regular Metroidvania game, it's exciting to return to a door that was previously inaccessible, because this would generally lead to an entire new area, but here you get very small parts of a level sectioned off because you need this or that tool to open the door, and when you do you seem to get a small reward only: a document or a relic. That's not what I consider sufficient rewards for backtracking, and as a result I roll my eyes and sigh whenever there is something that I'm not yet able to access. Perhaps this'll improve and there'll be entire tombs or similarly interesting/challenging areas to revisit, but don't make me backtrack just so that I can pick up a measly figurine or some Trinity portfolio.
Malf on 18/1/2023 at 16:28
Something about Shadow just raised my hackles, even more so than the previous entries in this latest trilogy.
I mean yeah, the game isn't helped by the utterly feckless performance by Camilla Luddington, but all of the trilogy suffered from that.
No, it's partly that it felt railroaded and linear after the previous games had focussed so much on the open world (even though I agree with you Thirith that OW isn't necessarily the best design choice for a TR game), partly the narrative (dangerously White Saviour); it just rankled.
Overall, I still think of the trilogy, the first game is my favourite, despite having its own issues.
But Anniversary is still probably the best TR overall in my eyes.
TheRealSlimGarrett on 19/1/2023 at 03:49
Agreed, not a big fan of the latest TR reboots. Anniversary was a decent remake of the original game. Shame they didn't follow that up with remastered TR2 and TR3.
Tomi on 19/1/2023 at 16:11
I'm done with Witcher 3 at last. I played the two DLCs but didn't get around to playing the brand new content, because I couldn't be bothered to install the next-gen update. Did I miss anything?
I can understand why so many people rate Witcher 3 so high, but while I really liked the game, it won't end up on my all-time favourite games list. The story and the characters are incredible, and those are what makes the game such an unforgettable experience, but I feel that the actual gameplay and most of the game mechanics are a bit too simple and unpolished. I also didn't really appreciate all the hand-holding and quest markers. Fortunately you can disable a lot of that stuff, but even then you never really have to think about what to do next. Finding a "lost" treasure isn't very rewarding, when a quest marker gives away almost the exact location of it. The best part of the game was the Blood & Wine expansion, and I'm glad that I left it for the last. The new abilities and weapons made the game even easier though, and even though I was playing on the hardest difficulty, I found it too easy even before that. And no way I'm going to start a "New Game+" in a 200h game... :D Why are the harder difficulty modes always locked on the first play through in so many games?
Malf on 19/1/2023 at 16:24
@Tomi: as noted above, I've been replaying Witcher 3 myself recently, having rebought the complete edition for a steal on Steam during the Christmas Sale.
Before playing on Steam, I'd put something ridiculous like 600+ hours into the GOG version, and I have settled on some core mods to keep the game interesting and more balanced whenever I play it now. They all focus on removing level differences and normalising all gear, so equipment remains relevant throughout playthroughs, and the game gets a LOT better with the levelling stripped out. You still level to get ability points, but that's it.
Before, I would complete a master set of gear, and by the time the game let me use it, it would stay relevant for exactly one level.
CDPR are
really bad at gear levelling, and this is reinforced in CP2077 too.
Take it out, and the game gets a lot better.
Thankfully, someone's curated a list of the best mods for this over at Nexus:
(
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7357)
Oh, and I've played a quest that was definitely new, and pretty cool. It ties in to the TV series, and is of a decent length. It also makes use of a previously locked door that always felt like there should be something behind it.
You get a set of armour like Henry's for completing it.
Thirith on 19/1/2023 at 16:41
@Malf: Yeah, Camilla Luddington isn't exactly a high point of the games. The script doesn't give her much to work with, but she is such a bland performer, and her bland and the script's come together to make this Lara utterly dull.