What video games are you playing?

[Nix]

On 1/27/2024 at 11:29 PM, DeltaAro said:

On 1/25/2024 at 2:30 PM, Nix said:

Well I played Sable anyway, because it was the 'free' game om PS Plus Essential in December :)

Oh no, I missed it. 🙁 I always forget to check it since I only subscribed to PS Plus Essential for Online Gaming.

Yeah, I only subscribed so my save games would be 'safe'. I don't even play online, couch co-op is the way for me. But this months selection includes a game called Rollerdrome:

It's a hectic 3rd person shooter... on roller blades 🛼 The concept is really cool, you are a newcomer in a messy en spectacular blood sport. Every level you are dropped in an area where you have to shoot a bunch of poor Rollerdrome employees. Performing stunts while you do so restocks your ammo and ramps up your score. A bullet time is available as well. Unfortunately I really suck at these type of games, but as luck would have it, the game allows you to toggle options such as invincibility so I can be really cool for more than 5 seconds 😅

December had a lot of nice sales, so I bought a couple of cheap games for Switch that I got around to playing last week:

Moonrise Fall: Slow paced exploration game with little to no tutorial where you follow the directions from a journal to find and photograph a bunch of cryptids. Looks really nice, gameplay is mostly fun except for some more tedious puzzle elements in the 'temple' enviroments. Also, taking a picture means keeping the cryptid in frame and pushing a couple of buttons as they are prompted. Two of these cryptids move around and I actually had to look at a youtube video to realize I had to keep the middle of the camera centered on the cryptid (as opposed to simply keep them in frame) to get those prompts to show 🙄

Lil Gator game: I really loved this. You are a gator boy who used to play a wildly imaginative game with his sister, who made all the assets out of cardboard and plywood for you to smash. But big Sis has gone to college to learn how to be a game developer and you are rallying all your friends (old and new) to create an even bigger game to get her to play again. And playing is the main thing you do in this game, from sliding down slides and using a swing to collecting really hilarious items such as one of those sticky hand things. A lot of the game is a big wink to The Legend of Zelda, mainly Breath of the Wild. But in this game, nothing breaks, you can't die and falling damage is unheard of. Also, you can change the clean (Zelda Wind Waker inspired) graphics to be really 'cronchy' giving it the look of another favorite game of mine, 'A short hike'.

On 1/27/2024 at 11:29 PM, DeltaAro said:

On 1/25/2024 at 2:30 PM, Nix said:

Also, speaking of unplayable, I finally finished Jedi: Survivor yesterday ✨

🏅

Didn't this come out ... 9 months ago? Have they finally fixed all the bugs? 😄

So many different games and all the same issue: they were released in an obviously unfinished state.

We really shouldn't accept this! Let's not preorder anything or convince ourselves that when we read about "tech issues" it won't be that bad! OK, on February 29th, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will come out ... <preorder> 🏃‍♀️

Eeeeeehm nope... I mean, they fixed all the game breaking ones, and the performance mode is slightly better then it was but still completely unacceptable to sell this for full price for the state it is in.

I am definitely not buying the inevitable third game until it has been out for at least a year... shame that will mean the story will probably be spoiled for me though...

 

[organs and bone]

@Nix

you have ‘a short hike’? I have been eyeing that game for a bit.

currently my faves are Zelda (totk) and animal crossing 

 

[Nix]

5 hours ago, organs and bone said:

@Nix

you have ‘a short hike’? I have been eyeing that game for a bit.

currently my faves are Zelda (totk) and animal crossing 

 

Yes it’s a super chill game, I really recommend it if you like games to take it slow. Which I guess you do, since you like animal crossing :) I played that one way to much during the lockdown and eventually sold it out of self preservation 😅

[organs and bone]

rehehehehehe

[organs and bone]

ahhhh I love sable so so much in animal crossing! (The entire franchise tbh)

 

Edited March 2 by organs and bone

[lovelyleaf]

link to the past

[Picklethewickle]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX. I don't know what the DX stands for, but it's a re-release of Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team, basically.

[Nix]

6 hours ago, Picklethewickle said:

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX. I don't know what the DX stands for, but it's a re-release of Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team, basically.

I’m pretty sure the DX stands for ‘Deluxe’. Nintendo did that way back with a couple of Gameboy games that got a remaster for the Gameboy color.

I guess this version has some extra options and/or content then?

[Sili]

1 hour ago, Nix said:

I’m pretty sure the DX stands for ‘Deluxe’. Nintendo did that way back with a couple of Gameboy games that got a remaster for the Gameboy color.

I guess this version has some extra options and/or content then?

 

From my understanding thats exactly what it is. If you enjoyed the original you would likely enjoy DX, as its the same game with extra stuff, better graphics etc.

 

On 4/13/2022 at 4:20 PM, Sili said:

Stellaris. Its always stellaris.

So as much as its always Stellaris (and it is), updates include Age of Wonders 4 (trying to get a life/necromancer kind of thing going), and wingspan.

 

Wingspan is really cool actually, its just a computerised version of a real life board game, so you can play against AI opponents. Its a nice relaxing game, in which you can learn about birds. Highly recomemended for anyone that enjoys board games, or anyone that enjoys engine builder games.

[Picklethewickle]

10 hours ago, Nix said:

I guess this version has some extra options and/or content then?

 

8 hours ago, Sili said:

From my understanding thats exactly what it is. If you enjoyed the original you would likely enjoy DX, as its the same game with extra stuff, better graphics etc.

The plotline has been the same so far as I've gotten, but a lot of things are made easier. Your teammates can no longer hit you with their moves, and can shoot through you if they have ranged attacks. You can change who is the team lead (who you are playing) at any point, not just in certain dungeons, and not just after you finish the main story. You can rescue yourself if your team faints. Ranking up gives you all kinds of rewards, including an increase in the number of jobs you can take at once, which means you can do a dozen jobs in one dungeon and rank up even faster. Pokemon now have additional rare abilities that help your whole team. You don't have to find special HMs before you can access certain dungeons.

[portrait of a crow on fire]

the new Persona game!

[DeltaAro]

I succumbed to the temptation to buy Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. 🙃

This is basically Final Fantasy Remake part 2. It's a standalone game: You get a small bonus for having FF VII Remake, but you can't reuse your characters.

Right now, I'm at the Mythril mines, so relatively at the start. Up till now, it's truly EPIC, with a huge and grandiose open world ... it seems the game constantly tries to outdo itself, lol.

I would very, very much recommend it. It may be the best game of this generation yet.

What an improvement compared to the rather formulaic and repetitive Final Fantasy XVI... the only better aspect there was the gritty medieval fantasy setting, which I like a bit more than the cute shōnen anachronism stew (sci-fi/magic/swords) of Final Fantasy VII.

Now, I'd suggest you play Final Fantasy VII Remake before. Or the Midgar part of the original* (I guess, if you look up the story, you won't emotionally connect with the characters).

* Of course, the original is very rough for modern standards, but I got used to it after 1–2 hours. It runs fine with the ePSXe emulator.

EDIT: I've now noticed, that Final Fantasy VII Original also exists as a PS 4 game for 15 € !! So you can play it WITHOUT a PC emulator.

Oh, and the difficulty is "high" on normal difficulty for Final Fantasy standards. 🙂 The mainline bosses are can be tough when you skip too much of the open world side content.

Cloud, Sephiroth and Zack

Edited March 17 by DeltaAro
added FF7 Original PS4 hint

[Balfrog]

My brain appears to be stuck on elden ring at the moment. It is decently fun, but if you play it you probably need to read a fan wiki to find a lot of stuff. Starting out is rough in comparison to mid game as leveling is harder early on. Multiple characters are introduced with fake names that are close enough to their name I didn't notice until reading the fan wiki. For instance Ranni starts as Renna, and then you don't see here for a while, same with a boss you first see as Margit but is really Morgot. I don't remember names easily but I don't think this helps.

When I can pry my brain away or get too frustrated with elden ring I have been replaying The Messenger which is still a delightful game. I recently played Sea of Stars which was made by the same developers and didn't like as much. It was pretty but I don't think I like Chrono Trigger style games gameplay much. Its story slogged a bit due to the most interesting stories not being the mcs and the combat dragged at the end enough I cheated. It had so many references to the messanger and not as much of the charm.

[DeltaAro]

22 hours ago, Balfrog said:

It is decently fun, but if you play it you probably need to read a fan wiki to find a lot of stuff.

Kudos for admitting that. Most don't.

IMHO, Elden Ring is a victim of the difficulty hype. They wanted to sell 20 million copies, not be a niche game, but also not alienate the git-gud anti-easy-mode gamers.

So they reduced the execution difficulty, but increased the knowledge difficulty (that can be bypassed by using Wikis).

Elden Ring is an extremely difficult game if you figure everything out by yourself. If you don't and instead look up the PvE meta in the Wikis, it's pretty easy.

So I hate Elden Ring's the "accessible difficulty". Easy mode is more honest than this farce.

Try to find out by yourself how to dodge Malenia's Waterfowl dance, LOL. 😄

On a basic level 130 build, with no Wiki knowledge, Malenia is so hard that Isshin, the Sword Saint from Sekiro is a mere joke in comparison.

Elden Ring hints at a psychological pathology in some segments of the gamer population. In the end, everybody says "Oh, I didn't use the Wiki". But of course they did.

Otherwise, drop-off stats (achievements) would look worse than Sekiro's or Lies of P's and not much better instead.

Further proof is that the most common ending achieved is "Age of the Stars", which is hidden behind a lengthy, complex quest line that (unless you play like a beta tester) you likely will miss or lock yourself out of. It's absurd to believe that players would organically get that ending more often than the standard one.

And the one who don't use Wikis are bashed. It's really ridiculous when some players complain they get lost and the answer is "Duh, you literally have the light of grace that guides you!"

Yeah, the graces guide you directly to a boss (Margit, the Fell Omen) which is, with your character at this point in the game, 10 × harder than all the other first bosses of famous Soulslikes: Asylum Demon, Phalanx, Gyobu Oniwa, Parade Master, etc.

22 hours ago, Balfrog said:

My brain appears to be stuck on elden ring at the moment. It is decently fun, but if you play it you probably need to read a fan wiki to find a lot of stuff. Starting out is rough in comparison to mid game as leveling is harder early on. Multiple characters are introduced with fake names that are close enough to their name I didn't notice until reading the fan wiki. For instance Ranni starts as Renna, and then you don't see here for a while, same with a boss you first see as Margit but is really Morgot. I don't remember names easily but I don't think this helps.

Seriously it has its downsides, probably more a 7 / 10, not like a 10 / 10 masterpiece as often claimed.

Generally, I'm not the biggest fan of open world games, they often have so much fluff and filler. And Elden Ring is certainly no exception. I think this game was just too big, too ambitious for a mid-sized studio like From Software.

The recycling is pretty extreme. You fight Morgott and his Alter Ego Margit three times, basically every boss at least twice (perhaps in an Evergaol or dungeon), and it's not done well like in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth where you fight the Turks multiple times. In FF 7 that's explained by the plot, and you see cutscenes of them escaping after being defeated, not the dying animation!! 😖

So bosses are massively recycled. And catacombs, mines and caves = basically always the same. The story is also completely impenetrable.

I liked Demon's Souls Remake more. That's it, I said it.

• much better graphics (PS5 exclusive), three years ago I couldn't believe how incredible it looked
• no fillers
• no recycling
• accessible story
• it's straight-forward, doesn't encourage cheesing 🧀Elden Ring bosses OTOH do input reading and have just ridiculously delayed attacks and mobility, but they all can be easily cheesed.
• the atmosphere of the dungeons is unmatched, so unique and dreamlike (Prison of Latria, Boletarian Palace)

Edited March 18 by DeltaAro

[Nagito]

I'm currently into Ace Attorney. I finished AA4 and AA1, now I'm close to complete AA2, too. There are three more main games and two spin-offs for me to play. Kristoph Gavin and his younger brother, Klavier Gavin, are my absolute favorites and I find it impossible for me to pick just one of them.

 

[Balfrog]

So I wanted to play Syberia, but my save dissapeared. Probably going to just have a walkthrough up on might just put a walkthrough up on my other monitor, but lets be honest I needed that to progress anyway. Game is a point and click adventure about a lawyer trying to buy an eastern European automaton factory for an American toy monopoly only to arrive on the day of the sellers funeral and leaving you to figure out that the only heir has run to Siberia to chase mamoths. As you chase the heir you slowly lose phone signal and travel to fiction countries that no one back home has heard of. Very aesthetic, fairly pixel hunty, and man these puzzles often don't seem very clear to me.

On 3/17/2024 at 3:45 PM, DeltaAro said:

Kudos for admitting that. Most don't.

I don't interact with most online game communities so everyone I know who plays fromsoft and similar style games use the wiki a lot. With me and my sister, who is the one I talk about this most with, it is a mixture of being used to look up guides because of moon logic and looking at the wiki before we own the game to get an idea of it. Honestly I didn't know there was a "didn't use the wiki" crowd, as the showoff thing I always hear is the "don't use summons" crowd.

Edited March 25 by Balfrog

[Cavetowns_fkin_awesome]

mario kart deluxe 8 and animal crossing new horizons...

im basic sorry man :p

[Rook on the Hook]

I haven't been playing a ton of games lately because I've been on the road so much, but back before it picked up again I was playing a ton of Deep Rock Galactic, Red Dead Redemption 2, Stardew Valley, Resident Evil 2 and Dead By Daylight. When I get a little more free time I want to replay Enderal and Fallout: New Vegas, as well as finish all the DLC for Control.