Jason Moyer on 8/11/2024 at 18:30
Yeah everyone faps about Jennifer Hale, who is certainly amazing in the ME games, but male Shephard is just as good in my opinion. Really, the voice acting across the board in all 3 games is great. I'm still a bit stunned by how much I'm enjoying ME2LE, as I've been having a pretty hard time getting into a lot of games recently while trying to clear out my backlog but I kinda don't want this one to end. This entry is the reason why MELE is probably going to get added to my permanently installed games folder with all the ImSim classics, Arkane games, etc.
Aja on 8/11/2024 at 19:37
Wanting a game not to end, what a rare, special experience. I'm always waiting for stuff to be over even when I'm enjoying it. Put it in the memory bank and move on.
Jason Moyer on 9/11/2024 at 02:32
I think most games in general, especially now, massively overstay their welcome. People were complaining 15 years ago when games like Mirror's Edge came out and were 4 hours long, but that game is the exact length it needed to be. I have a hard time even getting 4 hours into most games now before my ADHD is like "you could be doing something you enjoy instead." I feel like the "value is determined by how much content there is" era is maybe ending for the most part, but it's still insane to me that people actively want games to waste their time.
Aja on 9/11/2024 at 03:53
Yeah whenever I hear about people wanting to grind... I mean I get that flow state can be rewarding or relaxing, but I don't want to look back on my life and see that I spent a large chunk of it farming XP.
Jason Moyer on 9/11/2024 at 04:21
Sometimes I enjoy the "click click dopamine" thing but I feel like Torchlight already distilled that down to its purest essence.. Borderlands took that and added fun shooting mechanics and wacky writing and visual humor. I can deal with those. But man, I tried playing Dragon Age Inquisition a few years ago and it was so dull I don't think I ever left the first map. And while I enjoyed Mirror's Edge Catalyst enough to complete it, it was so much worse than the original game in every aspect that I can't imagine ever revisiting it. Great game + open world + repetitive busywork doesn't equal Great game.
Tomi on 9/11/2024 at 16:37
That's an interesting point about the length of games. I too prefer shorter games these days, and apart from a few exceptions, I find any sort of grindy content in games annoying. I also don't really care about DLC for most games, because once I'm done with the main story of a game, I'm usually only pleased that it's over, and just the thought of having to start a new quest line or something makes me shy away from any additional content.
I played some art of rally again, and it's still a lot of fun. Having played some more "serious" rally games lately, I noticed that my experience has helped me learn to handle the cars in Art of Rally as well. The car physics still feel a bit too floaty, even though I think it has been tweaked a little once or twice since the initial release, but it's still fun. After playing EA WRC, the track design feels a bit too simple - a few obstacles or small rocks on the side of the road would make things a lot more exciting, and I hate how you can't usually tell how much you can cut in corners without getting a time penalty. And you'd think that the time penalty would be enough, but the game has that infuriating "fade out + reset car to the middle of the road" effect too. I also wish that there was a career mode or something similar in the game, but none of the available game modes are particularly interesting, especially when the times by the AI opponents feel a bit random most of the time.
Jason Moyer on 9/11/2024 at 19:48
Art Of Rally has been on my wishlist for ages, I really should pull the trigger at some point. Their new game, Golden Lap, looks great too. Not a lot of good racing management sims.
henke on 10/11/2024 at 12:26
Weird West - the initial release of this was plagued by some wonky controls, which got improved in later patches, and I've always felt like I owed this game a replay with the better controls. So I replayed the first chapter, and yeah, still a good time! Not sure I wanna replay the whole thing tho.
Zero Below The Sun - quasi-retro survival horror by indie solo dev. A game made with more heart than skill. It's a clunky, buggy mess, but it keeps offering up interesting moments and kinda has me hooked. This is sitting at 4 Steam user reviews at the moment. I'll add my own once I'm finished with it, but I think it's too weird and wonky to ever make it big.
Lake: Season's Greetings DLC - I'm getting into the spirit of the season early with this very wholesome mailman game. You drive around, deliver mail, talk to folks. It's nice.
Thirith on 11/11/2024 at 08:45
I'm enjoying the vibe of Silent Hill 2 (the original, with the Enhanced Edition mod) a lot, but I rather wish they'd either stripped out the puzzles or linked them more to the story and premise. The puzzles very much feel like they realised they were making a game and that walking sims weren't a thing yet, so they had to cram in more of what is commonly referred to as "gameplay" - but really, storywise I think this would've worked as a proto-walking sim with combat, which it already kinda is.
I'm also really enjoying Arkham Shadow, the VR game that just came out. It's one of the best-looking games on standalone VR, and so far it's a neat combination of classic Arkham gameplay, rethought for VR, and, strangely enough, Escape from Butcher Bay.
henke on 11/11/2024 at 10:24
I just picked up Silent Hill 4 on GOG, haven't start it yet. Only ever played SH2, haven't heard much good about the sequels, but I'm curious, and it's on sale.
Anyway, folks who are more familiar with these, are there any enhancements or mods I'll want to install with this one?
