henke on 24/4/2021 at 09:32
Remnant: From The Ashes - finished it! Yeah this was a fun Soulslike-but-a-shooter. The story in indeed a sequel to Chronos.
Underland: The Climb - (
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1592340/Underland_The_Climb/) this came out yesterday on Steam and I played through it right away. A fun puzzle platformer with pretty pixelart, and at 95 EUROPEAN CENTS it's a steal!
Watch Dogs: Legion - got back to this to play the post-campaign content and there's some pretty fun missions in here. Finding out there's "enemy camps" I haven't even been to yet.
I also picked up Fallout 76, since I've heard rumblings of it being a decent singleplayer Fallout by now. Anyone here played it?
Quote Posted by Neb
When I got to GTA 5 - which I was looking forward to - it was a surprise how terrible the driving mechanics are.
Yeah. :erg:
Malleus on 26/4/2021 at 15:09
I finished Nioh 2 recently. The combat in the first one was already great, but they added even more mechanics and options to it here (like demonic attacks, and the burst counter, which is a special parry but has other utility in combat), and it's still definitely the game's strongest point. I think, on the whole, it's more balanced than in the first game, some aspects of fighting both humans and demons have been made less frustrating, but as part of these changes everything on the player's side that was strong in the first game has been nerfed. In the end this means more builds are viable, but I kind of miss the overpowered stuff from Nioh. I like it when an rpg is not afraid to let players become ridiculously powerful, but Nioh 2 isn't really that kind of game anymore.
The loot system also returns, and the gist of it is the same: the many many attributes armors, weapons and items can have adds a lot of depth to the rpg system, but as a consequence, we have to spend a lot of time in the smithing menus and managing our inventory. Even more than before, as there are new kinds of items with their own stats, levels, etc.
The story isn't as good here, in my opinion. Only in retrospect I realize how good was in Nioh that 1. we had a talking protagonist 2. the whole story took place within one year 3. William had his motivation established in the first mission 4. the villain was properly introduced in the first mission. In Nioh 2 the story is stretched over 50 years and in the first half it felt like our silent protagonist is just drifting along historical figures and events. I know Japanese history enough to be able to follow the story, and it has its moments, and I liked interacting with famous people from that era, but the first game's story was much more impactful for me. I found the DLC's whole 'time traveling samurai searching for the source of evil' plot more interesting and enjoyable though.
Otherwise the game is basically an expanded and refined version of Nioh, with new mechanics, weapons, armor, enemies and bosses. Oh, and a particularly strong character creator. That's all I needed apparently.
henke on 26/4/2021 at 17:00
Fallout 76 is decent gameplaywise but runs too crappy on my base PS4 and internet-connection to be enjoyable.
Spiritfarer is... kinda amazing. I didn't really know what to expect from it and it's an experience quite unlike anything I've played. It's in the XBox game pass and if you have that you should play it without knowing too much going in. I couldn't really explain what it's like anyway, but if I had to take a stab at it I'd say that it's like FAR: Lone Sails but you're running a B&B on a boat and also it's a platformer and you're helping your guests deal with their emotional baggage
Thirith on 27/4/2021 at 06:45
As I'm getting further into Heaven's Vault, I'm enjoying it more - but at the same time I kinda wish I was playing a 'demake' of sorts of the game.
My main issue is that I find most of the gameplay grating, and the only thing that works for me reasonably well is the language stuff. I don't know whether it's the engine or Inkle's use of it, but moving around is clunky and the graphics aren't used particularly well to hint where there are hotspots. I might walk past what looks like a blank wall and suddenly I get the option to interact and discover some writing - but until I'm close the wall looks identical to any other wall that doesn't have hotspots. The combination of bad (or at least uneven to the point of arbitrary) visual signposting and clunky movement makes exploration frustrating for me.
If this were presented more along the lines of old-school P&C adventures, with discrete screens and easy movement, so that these things don't get in the way of what I want to do, i.e. exploring and translating, I think I'd enjoy it a fair bit more.
Then there's the travel along the River, which I'm also not a big fan of, especially since there's so much of it, and the way you're supposed to navigate at the same time as clicking on conversation prompts where you have little to no clue as to what you'll actually say doesn't exactly keep me engaged. Again, I can imagine this being presented more along the lines of a LucasArts P&C adventure and I'd be okay with it, but as it is, it gets in the way of my enjoyment of Heaven's Vault. Which is a shame, because the things that I do enjoy I enjoy quite a bit.
Briareos H on 27/4/2021 at 07:32
Quote Posted by henke
SpiritfarerI just got this on Switch and... I kind of hate it? I should have read more about it beforehand. Even as a casual time waster it grates me and I feel like nitpicking everything: every action takes forever, everything is a currency, Gwen is the most unlikeable game character I've met in a long time (who thought it was a good idea to give her the tutorial? Plus she smokes indoors), etc. I'll try to throw a couple more hours in but I think it's not for me. On the other hand, the art is gorgeous.
Also on Switch, after 15 hours and a bit less than 500 deaths I recently got through
The Messenger. I'm not very good at platform games but this one was just the right difficulty for me, hard and occasionally frustrating but never so much that I didn't want to go back and try to beat it. It starts as a old school Ninja Gaiden-style platformer and opens up a bit later on. The gameplay, music, sprite work, pacing and balance are all top notch, I never felt like I was hitting a difficulty wall (compared to, say, Hollow Knight). I also loved the light-hearted story and characters but your mileage may vary. Still need to finish the DLC, it is tough as nails but I really want to 100% the game.
Anarchic Fox on 27/4/2021 at 12:26
Quote Posted by Briareos H
Even as a casual time waster it...
There's your problem right there. Spiritfarer is very much
not a casual time waster.
Briareos H on 28/4/2021 at 11:56
Yeah, really should have looked more into the game first. On the other hand, I really like diving into random games based on just an interesting recommendation, especially one such as "unlike anything I've played" in Henke's post.
Eh, you win some, you lose some.
henke on 28/4/2021 at 12:09
That's one of the nice things about game subscription services, you can just dive into games without knowing anything about em. I wouldn't necessarily recommend anyone BUY Spiritfarer without knowing what they're getting.
Besides Spiritfarer I'm also playing Subnautica. Dipped my toes in it a few years back but bounced off it, liking it more now, even though it's quite stressful, especially the starting hour when I was just dying of thirst over and over while desperately trying to figure out how to find water. Finding water in the ocean is surprisingly hard.
WingedKagouti on 28/4/2021 at 12:13
Quote Posted by henke
Besides Spiritfarer I'm also playing Subnautica. Dipped my toes in it a few years back but bounced off it, liking it more now, even though it's quite stressful, especially the starting hour when I was just dying of thirst over and over while desperately trying to figure out how to find water. Finding water in the ocean is
surprisingly hard.
I personally recommend playing Subnautica on the non-Survival difficulty. All Survival does is give you the food and water meters that drain super fast.
Thirith on 28/4/2021 at 12:22
While I don't have any issues with subscription services, I think the overall approach would have kept me from some of the games I ended up enjoying most. I bounced off of Thief when I first played the game (well, the Thief 2 demo), and it was only on the third attempt that I *got* how I had to play the game in order to enjoy it, and that's when it turned into one of my favourite games of all time. If there'd been more games for me to choose from at the time and I would've just given Thief an hour to get me hooked, I would've probably moved on to other games.
Talking of games I've not yet got into: I'm hoping to put some time into getting into IL-2: Battle of Stalingrad in VR, but the game isn't exactly making it easy for me. Basically, what I'd need is flight school. I did get to a point with IL-2: 1946 where I could take off and land successfully most of the time, but it took hours watching YouTube videos and practicing. I would so love it if this game had a proper tutorial and missions that help me get beyond useless.