|
So I got a year's worth of Origin Access for 29.99 because I'd like to play through Inquisition and Andromeda and some of the Battlefields. I started with Battlefield 4 which is now finished. I expected a fun shoot em up game in the vein of COD and BF with very good graphics and cool setpieces which is what I got, but what I wasn't expecting was just how bad the story got. I know that I have no right to expect anything great from a SP campaign for a game like this, but it was particularly bad. Dramatic death scenes for characters I have no reason to care about, a story that hops from setpiece to setpiece with the most threadbare reasoning for going from one to the next, a conflict between two characters that is based on one of them being a complete idiot, twists that make no sense and are later untwisted in ways that make no sense, some cringe worthy voice acting and writing, moments of intense danger that come from the characters doing things that are obviously stupid, so on and so forth. The things that count: the gunplay and graphics, are generally fine and shooting up stuff is fun. Since I got it as part of a $30 a year package I don't intend to pay for more than once, it's not like I regret playing the game, it's just frustrating to see a game that obviously took so much manpower on the technical and audiovisual side have a story that is so bad. Next up is probably Inquisition or Andromeda. Whatever the writing is in those games, it can't possibly make less sense than what I just played. csm141 fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Mar 23, 2018 |
#
?
Mar 23, 2018 08:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 06:29 |
|
|
It has been quite a while since I last updated my backlog and I've become a wee bit more scrutinizing in the games I play, nulling them after 30-60 minutes if they don't grab me. Just not enough time and too many games. All games are on Steam unless noted. Complete Paradigm  Irreverent humor, really good voice acting, and an art style that combines Ren & Stimpy gross out paintings with neon 80s aesthetic. The game left me a little cold at times: the puzzles are interesting but not very involved, and most areas are self contained. I strongly recommend it to fans of Lucasarts style adventures but I doubt I'll revisit it in the future. Strafe  Strafe falls so short of perfection. The low poly graphics are on point, rocking soundtrack, excellent gunplay, and the procedural level design surprisingly creates some interesting locations. But this is the poster child for why roguelike elements don't belong in every video game. The gameplay is strong enough to carry a traditional Doom-like shooter and the level modules are well designed so why this game isn't just a chapter based shooter like Quake is baffling to me. We Know the Devil  Decently written visual novel about three queer girls in a religious camp on the night the devil comes for them. A story about learning to love yourself before you can love others. Short but sweet. Spirits of Xanadu  A short horror game on board a spaceship hovering over a mysterious planet. No jump scares, just dark lighting and moody atmosphere. At about 2 hours Xanadu doesn't overstay its welcome which is fine because there are a finite number of enemies, you can't actually die, and there's not much more to do than search for audio logs and fight robots. Detective Grimoire A sort of hybrid of hidden object and point-and-click adventure. Good voice acting and cute art with a few deduction mini-games. Teased as part of a larger series, it's been like 4 years and no word of a sequel. House of the Dying Sun Freespace 2 was basically the last really good space sortie game and there hasn't been much since. Each mission is about 5 minutes and grants you a bonus weapon or additional NPC ally to command. Playing it straight through doesn't offer much of a challenge but given its arcade nature you're encouraged to increase the difficulty and master each stage. Unless you're really into the gameplay loop you might come away feeling like it's really shallow but I think there's plenty of room for arcade style design. The Order: 1886 PlayStation 4 This game is basically the death of the Gears of War shooter: lots of narrow corridors with bombastic set pieces and people walking around slowly with their finger to their ear. Combat is okay but it is pretty and the futuristic Victorian setting is well realized but the game ends on a fat cliffhanger with several unresolved plot hooks with no sequel in sight. If you have a PS4 you could do worst for $10. Hero of the Kingdom II      A dumb hidden object game I couldn't stop playing. To describe it in the most disingenuous way possible it's a resource conversion and bartering game where you're constantly turning two fish into a sword and blackpowder for 6 hours. A perfect "podcast" game to unwind to. Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut PlayStation 3 (the PC version is basically unplayable) If this game was meant to be Twin Peaks then they nailed it. By that I mean the first 1/4 is amazing, the second half is loving garbage, and the last quarter assails you from every direction with multiple twists that outdo the one before them. I'm glad I finished it but I can't recommend anyone play it. Night in the Woods  This game threw me off from the start with a narrative that seemed too clever by half but very quickly it becomes a dark comedy in the realm of magical realism set in a dying community. It walks a careful balance between dry wit and frank discussions of coping with mental illness and the roles we all play within our community. No NPC is wasted and while some people felt put off by the game's turn in the end I found it affected me deeply. Gorogoa A beautiful "hidden object" game where you solve puzzles by sliding frames around to reveal new images. I don't want to say anything more, it can be finished in a single sitting but this is a 10/10 game for me. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy PlayStation 4 A rare older female duo lead action adventure. Naughty Dog still at their best with a terrific cast, exotic locations, and amazing set pieces. While it makes some references to prior games if you were to play one Uncharted make it this one. Dead Rising 2 I didn't think I would like this one as much as I did but it hooked me through it's 12 or so hours. There's a certain cadence to follow to have a really good time and I got the best ending on a single run. South Park: The Fractured but Whole A marked improvement over The Stick of Truth. Everything you expect from the brand is here with better combat and more ridiculous set pieces. The ending is a little weaker than Stick but overall it's a solid package with a whole season's worth of content. Singularity Pretty bland shooter. It doesn't push its time powers enough and it has aged pretty poorly. Corpse Party Surprisingly creepy but ultimately unfulfilling. It's a glorified visual novel with a lot of walking back and forth but its reliance on instant death and BAD ENDS make it an absolute chore to play without a guide. It's genuinely creepy for a gussied up RPG Maker game but not worth playing yourself. Super Mario Odyssey Nintendo Switch The best evolution of the Mario 64 and Galaxy formula. Each level presents a new idea and challenge with very little repeat content. Sometimes it can feel a little erratic as moons are just found out in the open but with the best move set in a Mario game and fantastic level design this is the new bar for 3D platformers that even Nintendo will have a difficult time overcoming. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony A beautiful end to a series I both loved and hated. I don't want to discuss this much other than to say this is not only the greatest ending to a video game ever, it is one of the most fitting ends to a piece of media I've seen. If Chunsoft pumps out another one I will be incredibly disappointed. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures Nintendo GameCube The worst Zelda game I've played. It's unfair to compare it to the standard series but even as a co-op adventure game this is nothing but terrible level design packed onto uninteresting gameplay. Silent Hill 3 PlayStation 2 A step up above Silent Hill 2's gameplay but nowhere near as engaging. It takes nearly half the game for the plot to actually start and the muddy texture choices mask obvious exits, something I didn't feel like the previous two games ever did. I do love Heather as a character. There's a certain level of genre savviness she carries and eventually she's fed up with spooky poo poo, flatly reacting to melodramatic characters and making fun of the horror shenanigans. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard About 80% of this game is near perfect with an additional 20% that feels like the producers wanted to pad out the content. RE7 is a good return to form with some good set pieces and great sound design. If this is the new direction of the series I'm on board. The Evil Within The Cabin in the Woods of horror games, The Evil Within is a love letter to everything survival horror. Each level is a new idea or gameplay style. It demands a lot from the player and there were a few moments that really dragged but there are few games I can recreate in my mind beat for beat. Doom 3 This was mediocre in 2004 against Far Cry and Half-Life 2 and it's absolute garbage in a post Doom 2016 world. Instead of actual level design Doom 3 relies on monsters teleporting behind you at inappropriate moments. The brief trip to hell is the one highlight as it removes your stamina meter (in a loving Doom game!) and is straight action before ending on a bad FPS boss fight. I can't recommend anyone play this but I was driven to see how bad it could get. Call of Duty: Ghosts Call of Duty games are a guilty pleasure. Sometimes they're well directed and exciting, other times they unironically fetishize literal war criminals. Ghosts is the black sheep of the series. Nothing interesting happens, the set pieces are all underwhelming, and it ends on a cliffhanger. Pass. System Shock  It's amazing going back to see the evolution of the Shock series because every game inspired by System Shock is almost exactly the same. Every plot beat, every design element here is found all the way down to BioShock and probably Prey. It starts strong, almost survival horror-like, then follows a linear progression system where the protagonist turns into Doom Guy. Eventually you hit what should be the climax at which point the game continues for way longer than it should while turning into a generic shooter. It's a shame the remake will likely never happen. Deponia Okay Lucasarts style adventure game starring the worst piece of poo poo protagonist. It's clever in places with a few good puzzles but I'm not excited about playing the series. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES PlayStation 2 I played this in preparation for Persona 5. It's a good, if dated, JRPG and the two sequels improve upon it in every way. It's definitely the darkest of the series with a cast that keeps to themselves but I think the social elements are stronger if only because you're giving almost complete freedom to tackle the time based challenges. Has one of the most bullshit final bosses in JRPGs beating out Wild ARMs 3 in my list. The Last Guardian PlayStation 4 An Ico-like platformer featuring a giant griffon dog. The atmosphere and animations are second to none but gameplay is rather clunky with a poor camera. Another fantastic ending, further proof that video games can rival movies with good direction and interactive cut scenes. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below My first real Musou game, DQH was design specifically for single player. As a casual Dragon Quest fan it hits all the right notes while still providing enough character customization and challenging battles to stay entertaining. Null Beholder Papers, Please style adventure where you monitor tenants in a Soviet bloc apartment and report on them. It got repetitive and I don't see myself finishing it but the first couple of hours were engaging enough that I can recommend you check it out. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil The expansion apparently improves upon the base game but it left such a terrible taste in my mouth that I'm not even going to bother. The Bridge Spent 10 minutes wandering aimlessly before uninstalling. It has good reviews so maybe I'll come back later but nothing about it grabbed me. Human: Fall Flat Goofy physics based puzzle game. Well done but nothing exciting. Iron Storm Garbage early aughts fps. I mistook this for I believe Deadly Dozen and that was a mistake. This game came out the same year as No One Lives Forever 2. Kingsway Retro style roguelite based around a fictional operating system. I almost beat it in one run, died, then decided I got enough out of it. Mini Ninjas Several years ago this would've been a 3D platformer I could enjoy but not after Mario. And I know that's not fair but there's just better options available. Slime Rancher Cute and inoffensive but I just can't engage with these farming games. Tharsis Tough as nails risk simulator where dice are assigned to resolve catastrophic events as you make your way to Mars. I was one turn away from winning when the game drops a bombshell that I need to be in the navigation room to actually win, a move that nobody could accomplish. Uninstalled out of seething rage. Wizorb Solid breakout clone. Would've been all over this years ago but too many better games to play.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 03:10
|
|
|
THE GAMES OF MARCH: #25: Matterfall (3 hours) - Well, this was a disappointment, I have to say. Sorry, Housemarque but you whiffed on this one. Style over substance all the way, with cumbersome controls, a real lack of enemy variety, and levels that go on for way too long for how little the game spices things up. #26: PSVR Demo Disc 2 (2 hours) - A collection of small portions of full(?)-priced VR games. It came with the PSVR on a disc, so I'm counting it as one singular game. #27: Jeanne D'Arc (25 hours) - Level 5's one and only SRPG, it's a good one. A little too reliant on making you grind if you don't have the perfect group. #28: Weeping Doll (1 hour) - VR horror trash #29: Dying Reborn VR (1 hour) - VR horror trash #30: The Last Guardian VR (10 minutes) - A little VR plaything where you say hi to Trico and throw food barrels to him. #31: Arc the Lad (9-10 hours) - Kind of weird little Active SRPG, also bizarrely short compared to its much longer sequels. Almost rudimentary to the point of being simpler than early Fire Emblem. #32: PSVR Worlds: Scavenger's Odssey (1.5 hour) - Mechwalking-simulator.. okay there's a tiny amount of action too. The amount of gravity-defiance made for a very dizzying experience. #33: Tearaway (4-5 hours) - Wonderful game from Media Molecule, easily their best. #34: PSVR Worlds: The London Heist (1/2 hour) - The 'action' game on the PSVR Worlds collection, it's very silly and a dumb as gently caress plot. I was very impressed by the expressiveness of the character models. #35: PSVR Worlds: Ocean Descent (1/2 hour) - More of a 'movie ride' than a game, a shark attacks you as someone talks to you through an intercom about some plot that has no relevance to anything. #36: STATIK (3 hours) - Your VR hands are stuck inside of puzzle boxes. Should scratch the "The Room" kind of itch, but without the millions of tiny secret drawers. #37: Eight Ball (many many tries) - Literally a pinball machine in my apartment's basement. I thought there was more to the table but it turns out there's not since it's from the solid state era. #38: Conceptis Fill-a-Pix (many hours) - My 'going to sleep' game. I solved all the F2P puzzles which is enough to call this beaten. #39: Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations (6-7 hrs) - Sort of like if early-era Telltale made an Adventure Time game. Similar to the Sam & Max series. Not super funny and not super difficult either but it's alright. The combat sections are HORRIBLE though. #40: Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom (16 hrs) - Somewhat breezy but just average 3D JRPG with fighting game combat, deviantart character design, and a bafflingly obtuse story with an even more baffling ending.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 09:11
|
|
|
Man, some of you guys burn through games at an incredibly inspiring pace! Meanwhile I’ve only beaten 5 games this year so far and I’ve been working on Persona 5 for almost a year.  All this despite having a backlog of probably thousands. Any hot tips for someone with lovely time management skills? Other than cutting out the mindless internet browsing, which I’m all too aware is loving over my gaming time.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 17:30
|
|
|
Panic Restaurant posted:Man, some of you guys burn through games at an incredibly inspiring pace! Meanwhile I’ve only beaten 5 games this year so far and I’ve been working on Persona 5 for almost a year. I'm also unloading a years worth of stuff but play what you like and stop playing what you don't like. I'm sure focusing on one thing at a time also helps but I too am playing Persona 5, Horizon, Trails of Cold Steel, and Demons Souls simultaneously which would take approximately 2 weeks to beat if I played literally 24/7.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 18:35
|
|
|
Agreed with the above. If something isn't drawing you within the first half hour or so, it's probably not worth your time. Also, time commitments are vastly different from person to person, so it'll just happen that some people in this thread have / make the time to play games way more often than others. If you want to feel better, start comparing yourself to the likes of me. I'm lucky to get through one game a month with life always getting in the way, and my backlog doesn't stop growing. Speaking of - I did complete another game. Completed - Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas (Played on Switch, but it's cross platform): This is heavily inspired by Wind Waker. The creators did a decent job of it, but you can tell they lacked either the time or resources to fully polish it. There's some weird jankiness going on every now-and-then, and the enemy AI is sometimes laughable. If you want a watered-down Wind Waker, this one will scratch that itch for a moment, but will likely leave you wanting more. Edit: Completed another quick one. Completed - Her Story: Quick little story-driven word hunt (I guess that's what you'd call it?). The story is compelling and it's put together well. I think it was an iPad game first, but the port is good. 
Good-Natured Filth fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Apr 4, 2018 |
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 20:06
|
|
|
Noy sure if this belongs to this thread but I have a compulsive behavior to buy games even though I have a huge backlog, especially when they are on sale. This behavior started off inncucous enough several years back when Steam is still just a platform for HL2 and Counterstrike and full price traditional boxes games are the usual methods of acquisition. When Steam started offering deep discounts and humble bundle came into the scene, I started hoovering games up as their prices seem irresistible compared to traditional boxed prices and it feels great to have extra games on reserves coming from a time where I thrived for years off Warcraft 3 plus it's custom mods and nothing else. Slowly but surely, the backlog started to pile up without me noticing (this is not helped by a period of time when I was hooked on WOW for like 4 years where I continue buying games but finding little time to play them). So to cut the story short, I have over a thousand games in my steam now (urgh), and this does not include games I bought on origin, gog and other places. Now, everytime I opened up my steam client, I see hundreds of games and basically just overwhelmed by it and not touching any of them, which isn't helped by th fact that I got sucked into another mmo (Guildwars2) right now.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 09:45
|
|
|
You are not alone  There are many in this thread with several thousand games in their library, and some use this thread as a kind of gamification: writing a small review of a game you have tried and either finished or nulled, can help to play more and reduce the backlog. I simply stopped buying lovely bundles, and now only grab the occasional good Humble bundle or HOG-centric bundles from Fanatical/Indie gala. Walk through all your titles, and add the ones you actually want to play into a separate folder will also make it easier, next time you want to play a new game. I currently have a "Play Soon" folder of about 50 games, that goons have talked about or reviewed in the Steam thread, were I went "Oh yeah, I own that one too. Must try it soon." The last couple of posts I made, were from games taken from that folder. Also try out some random games in your library, and if it sucks after 30 minutes (sometimes only 5-10 minutes if it's bundle fodder), just quit and uninstall it. Throw it in a garbage folder in your library, so it's out of sight. Use tools like Steam Completionist to randomly pick games for you to play, Steam Advisor if you want to play a popular/highly rated game, or Steam library filters something within a specific genre/style tag.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 17:47
|
|
|
Hello and welcome! Have my own round of tips: - If you see a game and want to buy it, put it on the wishlist first. Look up youtube videos of its gameplay, wait a day (or at least an hour, if it's a daily deal). Think - do you want to play it? Or just own it? - Do NOT browse steam or humble or any of the places while there are major sales events. If you want to shop, ONLY use your wishlist. If it ain't on the wishlist, it can wait. If you actually do want it for playing, refer to the above advice. - It's a little tedious to do, but try categorizing your library. I have mine loosely sorted by genre, which helps prevent me from getting overwhelmed by owning so many games. I instead focus on my mood: if I want to shoot something, I have a FPS category. If I want puzzles, etc etc etc. - Addendum: make a tag called "Current", and one called "Finished". Put the games you're focused on into Current, and the ones you finish into Finished. (Steam supports multiple tags per game so you can have one in FPS and one in Finished) - As that category grows, you can be satisfied. Bonus: make one called "Garbage" and never look it in. Those games failed to entertain, and are banished from your sight. Good luck! You've already done the hard work of shopping and finding good deals, now it's time to actually reap the rewards of your shopping and have fun with what you have!
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 17:56
|
|
|
I also find that simply choosing a game to play can take up a tonne of time. So using some kind of Steam randomizer really helps cut that down by choosing a game at random: http://www.thewheelhaus.com/usergames.php If you've got a huge library filled with bundled stuff chances are it'll pick a game you haven't even heard of. Give it a half hour or so to impress and if you like it continue with it. I've found quite a few hidden gems in my library that I'd never have chosen to play.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 18:03
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Bonus: make one called "Garbage" and never look it in. Those games failed to entertain, and are banished from your sight. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 18:06
|
|
|
shoc77 posted:everytime I opened up my steam client, I see hundreds of games and basically just overwhelmed by it and not touching any of them, which isn't helped by th fact that I got sucked into another mmo (Guildwars2) right now. The worst part is that an MMO doesn't really have a completion state to it. I have the same problem as you, but I simply cannot play MMOs or any real online game anymore because I no longer have the sense that progress is being made. If I'm playing a lovely game, at least one day I'll complete it and will thus feel a little less guilty about having bought it. But an MMO is like, it just keeps sucking and sucking and sucking away
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 18:11
|
|
|
Sininu posted:Just do this instead I mean, I could, but I'd rather not have to find them again or something. Or, my garbage category has room for me discovering a game isn't garbage, and reviving it, which - it'll never happen, but redemption can happen to the oddest of games.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 18:21
|
|
|
Panic Restaurant posted:Man, some of you guys burn through games at an incredibly inspiring pace! Meanwhile I’ve only beaten 5 games this year so far and I’ve been working on Persona 5 for almost a year. I would say try to play the game consistently so you get more absorbed in it. Don't play it once a week. Try to play it consecutively if you can. I have the same problem as you which happened with Persona 5 earlier this year. I would recommend not playing multiplayer games as much because that's also what I use to do before I started completing games. Multiplayer games never end and there is also never a good time to stop playing. You can always just go for another match. Also try not to get distracted, if you get really into the game's world you will finish it in no time and will always be wanting to play it. I would sometimes listen to podcast in the background but with games with heavy story it is very distracting. Or if my phone is going off everytime. So I just mute it and check it only once in a while.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 18:26
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:I mean, I could, but I'd rather not have to find them again or something. Or, my garbage category has room for me discovering a game isn't garbage, and reviving it, which - it'll never happen, but redemption can happen to the oddest of games. They won't be permanently hidden, it just puts it into a special category that's only visible in the dropdown list that has all your custom categories.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 18:26
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:I mean, I could, but I'd rather not have to find them again or something. Or, my garbage category has room for me discovering a game isn't garbage, and reviving it, which - it'll never happen, but redemption can happen to the oddest of games.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 18:27
|
|
|
Mr. Flunchy posted:I also find that simply choosing a game to play can take up a tonne of time. So using some kind of Steam randomizer really helps cut that down by choosing a game at random: http://www.thewheelhaus.com/usergames.php Oh man I need to use a randomizer thingy like this. I have the same issue. Sometimes I have downloaded/in dozens of games without ever starting one of them. I will use this for my next game. Right now I am playing Dark Souls 2 and Doom 2016.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 19:08
|
|
|
Organizing games by genre sounds good, but what category would games like GTA be classified as?
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 20:25
|
|
|
I need to stop being so lazy with these updates, but at least I beat a few games since my last post at the end of November. Some of these were short and relaxing, but sometimes you need that to help you to tackle the bigger games. Also having a Switch makes bus trips and flights go by easily. BEATEN GAMES:
Also was able to start Nulling a bunch of different games, mostly from playing for an hour and realising that I'm probably never going to gel with them fully. Either that or I come across games I got in a bundle and realise why they were given away for cheap... 
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 20:44
|
|
girlfriend
|
wafflemoose posted:Organizing games by genre sounds good, but what category would games like GTA be classified as? Third Person Shooters? Open World Chaos Makers?
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 20:49
|
|
|
wafflemoose posted:Organizing games by genre sounds good, but what category would games like GTA be classified as? YMMV but instead of organizing specifically by genre, I go with a system that's more aligned with the types of games I'm in the mood to play. So for me, GTA-style games are in the same bucket as RPGs, because both tend to be large time investments with large maps, collectibles, etc. (Also helps that most open world games nowadays are chockablock with RPG mechanics.) Proper fighting games are side by side with spectacle fighters like Bayonetta, because ultimately they're both "push button, punch dude" type games. In practice, none of this has actually helped me conquer my behemoth backlog, mind, but...
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2018 22:02
|
|
|
I keep four categories: Nulled, To Play, Long-Term, and Currently Playing. I went through all of of my games and nulled anything I didn’t have an *actual* desire to play (or at least try). Which was most of my 2000+ games. Games I wanted to play or had a good reputation stay in To Play, and I keep two active games in Currently Playing. I force myself to stick with a game for 15-30 minutes, or with some games until I get into the actual gameplay loop. If I’m not enjoying it or interested at that point, I usually null it. Long Term is for any game that is multiplayer or a looooong time investment (open world RPG). I try to leave these for after my To Play list is completed, but I’m not super into competitive multiplayer so it’s not a real issue for me. Using this method I’ve cleared out my To Play list, and am working on my 15 Long-Term games and some extras on 3DS. For the first time in two years I’m enjoying games, playing with friends, and beating choice paralysis!
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 03:31
|
|
|
Seeing this thread has finally convinced me: it's time. I've uninstalled my biggest timesinks of CK2 and Civ andorganized my library into categories of need to beat/need to start/beaten/tried and didn't like. I also pruned the dead weight (mostly old versions of rereleased games or abandoned Early Access games). Current To-Do List
Wish me luck! I'm currently really loving The Swapper, and kicking myself for not starting it sooner. It's really beautiful to see in motion.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 04:52
|
|
|
I didn't know you could organize games into categories like that  I know what I'm doing tomorrow night!
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 05:00
|
|
|
For those wanting to organise their games into categories, Depressurizer is worth checking out. It's a bit unintuitive at first but worth the effort if you have a big library. The Steam rating and How Long To Beat categories in particular are very useful.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 15:27
|
|
|
drguildo posted:For those wanting to organise their games into categories, Depressurizer is worth checking out. It's a bit unintuitive at first but worth the effort if you have a big library. The Steam rating and How Long To Beat categories in particular are very useful. mvegter's Depressurizer is a fork that has been mentioned a few times. The developer is active so it's a good shot for a continued version. The current version does have a bug he's working to fix, where tags are not saved between sessions, so you might want to wait using this one.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2018 20:33
|
|
|
BEATEN: Batman Arkham Knight & DLC I bought, quickly beat and traded this on PS4 back on release, but the complete edition was super heavily discounted on Steam recently so I figured I'd finally see what the DLC was like. I adored each of the Arkham games on release on the PS3, and Arkham City remains the only game I've ever Platinumed. So in 2015 I was super hyped and super let down. I prided myself on playing the previous games on hard (without counter prompts and with no health upgrades), but while I had no problem with the AK fighting and predator sections, the Batmobile tank sections were so horrible and out of place I was on the verge of giving up on the game completely. Eventually, I put the difficulty down to easy and unhappily cruised to the ending before quickly trading it in and feeling very disappointed with Rocksteady. Coming back to it three years later knowing what exactly to expect was an interesting experience. I think Rocksteady's main problem is that they essentially nailed Batman as a video game right out of the gate with Asylum, polished it with City and didn't leave themselves with many good places to go in Knight. What finally emerged is a game with lots going on but with very little directorial control or overarching vision. Some bits like the predator and fighting work beautifully. Most of the Batmobile stuff doesn't, and someone should have made the call to cut the vast majority of the tank combat out of the game. This even extends to the plot: there's essentially two going on at once; a genuinely cool and well-written story about Batman slowly going mad under the influence of Scarecrow's fear toxin and dealing with the consequences of AC's Joker toxin and; the terrible Arkham Knight 'mystery'. Despite the Arkham Knight theoretically working for the Scarecrow I don't think you actually ever see them together and the two stories never satisfyingly dovetail. Plus the 'true' ending being locked behind collecting all the Riddler trophies is unforgivable. Fortunately, since I'm playing the PC version I just downloaded a save and skipped to the final Riddler boss (who I would have been extremely underwhelmed by if I'd have made the effort). The DLC is as mixed a bag as the rest of the game. The 'Arkham Episodes' about Batman's allies set before and after the main game are essentially challenge maps with a tiny slice of narrative on top (the Batgirl one is easily the best). The Season of Infamy stuff is a little better, as the individual stories ended up feeling like episodes of Batman: The Animated Series - with the Ra's Al Ghul mission standing out and letting you actually make a moral choice as Batman. At least the technical issues have been fixed on PC and it still looks amazing (and has a photo mode, which I always appreciate). In conclusion, Batman: Arkham Knight is a game of contrasts. BEATEN: A Way Out  Split-screen co-operative 70s crime thriller from the same studio that made Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. If it were a regular third person shooter it'd be average as hell. But playing it co-op with a buddy next to me on the sofa with a couple of drinks was really drat fun. If all you know of this is that it's a prison break game, that's only maybe the first third. The rest is an increasingly OTT action flick full of crazy set pieces. Highlights are Leo being one of the most striking looking and well acted characters I've seen in a game this year, the excellent hospital escape sequence with a camera that swoops and dives between players in an incredibly stylish manner, the fact that you can take time out of being a fugitive to do silly minigames, and the kickass ending sequence. Definitely worth full price if you have a friend in the room ready to play with you. I think online it wouldn't have been half as fun. BEATEN: The Wolf Among Us  Top tier Telltale game that's a noir detective story with an 80s color scheme, cool art and a kickass synth score. I've never read a Fables comic, but fairytale characters living in secret in the middle of New York is easy to understand. I've played so many Telltale games by now that I feel like I can see the strings and understand that my BIG IMPORTANT decisions don't actually matter, but the writing and atmosphere is so strong that it's easy to gloss over. Noir is one of my favourite genres, so I appreciated the lifts from stuff like Chinatown and choosing to subvert them. I particularly liked being able to murder the gently caress out of the smuggo John Huston analogue. Looking forward to Season 2 later this year. BEATEN: Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga  Been playing this in co-op over the last couple of months while babysitting my six-year-old nephew. Back when we doing Phantom Menace in October he was terrible at platforming, but he's since beaten Mario Odyssey on Switch, so by the time we hit Empire he was a pretty good co-op partner (though he did keep shooting me in the back and laughing while I was trying to solve the puzzles...). Gameplay wise it feels a bit dated, especially in comparison to the newer Lego titles. Objectives are frequently obscure and long-winded and there were a couple of game-breaking bugs (we kept falling through the floor in the penultimate Return of the Jedi stage) and had to play through the whole level repeatedly until it fixed itself. Still, it was neat to play a game with my nephew. He's pressuring me to get Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 now. BEATEN: Aviary Attorney  Surprisingly deep Phoenix Wright-a-like with animal characters. It's well-written, occasionally funny and has a decently elastic story with loads of possible permutations. I managed to screw up at least one case, but just decided to roll with it and ended up with a really dramatic and depressing finale. I can't believe I was emotionally wrapped up in a game about lawyers who are also birds, but there you go. It's only a couple of hours long too, so if you got it in a recent Humble Monthly I'd recommend checking it out. BEATEN: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided DLCs  Which are Desperate Measures, System Rift and A Criminal Past. I enjoy playing a sneaky hacker, so System Rift was my favourite. Didn't really get on with A Criminal Past as there was way too much combat towards the end and you don't get enough aug upgrades to handle it properly. They're all okay though, but none feel remotely essential to play and I only did them so I can say I've finally played every single bit of every Deus Ex game (including The Fall and Go). One thing that was neat is that they support the Tobii eye tracking built into my computer. It means the HUD is active and only fades in when you look at it, plus there's weirdly accurate aiming that 'snaps' to what you're looking at onscreen. Staring at people's heads, then instantly whipping out a pistol and dispatching them is really cool. It's a gimmick for sure, but feels like it fits right into the cyborg stuff in Deus Ex. The full pupil tracking view made me seasick in about 10 seconds though, so I turned that off quickly. BEATEN: Dragon Age Origins: Trespasser DLC  Finally wrapped up DA:I, and after the iffy quality of the previous two DLCs I wasn't exactly looking forward to this. Fortunately, Trespasser is a cut above Jaws of Hakkon and The Descent. That doesn't mean it's absolutely great: there's still the hurdle that I don't care about most of the characters or the world they live in (Cassandra is the exception amongst the companions). Still, the player character's story is wrapped up in a cool manner as your magic hand spirals out of control - I'm a sucker for desperate final battles that you feel there's no coming back from. I also really enjoyed that there were dialogue options to lose your poo poo about the world being in peril again - and that when you finally reach the big enemy he says "I'm sure you have a lot of questions..." and one of the multiple responses is "No, not really." Also after like 80 hours of samey identikit fantasy soundtrack I was amazed to hear that literally the last sequence in the game has a great tune. Glad this is over though. BEATEN: Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter  Pretty much a low effort reworking of X-Men Vs Street Fighter with the MSH characters in place of the X-Men ones. Still, I enjoy the new Cyber-Akuma boss and the core gameplay is really fun. It's a little calmer than the MvC series, which means more traditional Street Fighter skills transfer over easier. Plus, I was dorkily pleased to finally play as Mecha-Zangief, since I've wondered what game he was in ever since I played Card Fighters Clash and he was one of the top cards. Also, there's a burger place down the road from my house that has this on a multi-rom arcade cabinet, so it felt very cool to actually chill out and play a real cabinet with friends and beers. Necrothatcher fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Apr 5, 2018 |
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 13:52
|
|
|
Motherfucker I didn't realise "A way out" was actually out, but its Origin? Fuuuuuuuuuck that. What a shame.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 17:43
|
|
|
Mr. Flunchy posted:
This is probably my favorite Telltale game even above The Walking Dead. I actually felt bad for some of my decisions afterward(ripping someone's arm off) and the cliffhanging ending of Episode 1 would have been really impactful if I played this as the episodes came out.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 17:48
|
|
|
dogstile posted:Motherfucker What's wrong with Origin?
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 18:03
|
|
|
It's EA.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 18:04
|
|
|
Mr. Flunchy posted:BEATEN: A Way Out Kragger and I had a lot of fun playing it
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 19:22
|
|
|
Mr. Flunchy posted:BEATEN: Batman Arkham Knight & DLC That was almost certainly due to executive meddling. Someone in DC had a big boner for that character around the time the game was in development and the fact that he just suddenly exists in the Arkham universe says a lot. Plus it means they had to explain the backstory in the very same game and make it blindingly obvious what's going on.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 21:23
|
|
|
John Murdoch posted:That was almost certainly due to executive meddling. Someone in DC had a big boner for that character around the time the game was in development and the fact that he just suddenly exists in the Arkham universe says a lot. Plus it means they had to explain the backstory in the very same game and make it blindingly obvious what's going on. I thought it was really weird that they make you go through extended flashbacks in which you see the history of the character and the World's Greatest Detective STILL doesn't put two and two together. In the end I just figured he was in extreme denial.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 21:42
|
|
|
John Murdoch posted:That was almost certainly due to executive meddling. Someone in DC had a big boner for that character around the time the game was in development and the fact that he just suddenly exists in the Arkham universe says a lot. Plus it means they had to explain the backstory in the very same game and make it blindingly obvious what's going on. Dark_Tzitzimine had a job at DC?
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2018 22:21
|
|
|
The Scarecrow story was an excuse to evacuate Gotham so that they didn't have to worry about rendering a billion friendly NPCs
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2018 03:05
|
|
|
SolidSnakesBandana posted:The Scarecrow story was an excuse to evacuate Gotham so that they didn't have to worry about rendering a billion friendly NPCs Choosing to immediately evacuate the city reveals the game's lack of ambition. Gotham in AK is essentially Arkham City again - an abandoned urban landscape full of roaming criminals and militarised security in which Batman is free to behave how he wants. It'd have been a gameplay challenge to make a fun game in which you play Arkham Batman in a working city full of friendly NPCs, but it would have been something genuinely new for the Arkham series. Obviously, you'd have to find a way around problems like it being out of character for Batman to harm civilians or having the player stroll in full costume through the Times Square equivalent, but Rocksteady are smart cookies and I'm sure if they put their minds to it they could have worked out something. They'd have to ditch the Batmobile though, as it's already stretching credibility that ploughing your multi-tonne tank into gangs of criminals isn't killing the gently caress out of them - whether they're being tasered or not.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2018 08:39
|
|
|
BEATEN: Celeste. It's as good as everyone says; definitely the best challenge platformer I've played since Super Meat Boy, possibly taking the throne for itself. Extremely good difficulty curve and I stopped playing before I stopped having fun, which it encourages one to do. STILL IN PROGRESS: Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. I'm within inches of 100%ing it, but the Dark Realm is sufficiently obnoxious that I no longer give the tiniest of shits about whether or not I ever finish it. Suddenly changing the rules of engagement so that you can one-shot me and erase five minutes of very tedious progress that is reverted on save or post-death continue means I no longer care about what you have to offer. Even if I do complete it, it's NULLED in my heart. STARTED: Phoenix Wright: Spirit of Justice. My last 3DS game. REVISITED: Ikaruga. It didn't take me long to remind myself why I never bothered getting good at it, but the parts I got OK at were pretty rewarding.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2018 05:23
|
|
|
PLAYED: Dungeon Warfare I. I gave this one 3 hours; more than I normally give a game I'm not enjoying. Despite a deep upgrade system, the meat of the game is generic tower defence. Did not finish. COMPLETED: Demon Hunter II: New Chapter. A Hidden Object Game, and it is very poorly written even by the standards of the HOG genre. COMPLETED: Crusader Kings II. I have played it for 1600 hours without losing my enthusiasm; that tells you all you need to know about this game. Crusader Kings II has always been my favourite of the Paradox stable, for two main reasons. I find the character-driven gameplay to be more compelling than the faceless, mostly-interchangeable nations in other Paradox games; also, keeping a large empire together is harder in CK than any other Paradox game. No matter what you do, there's always going to be a few vassals who hate your guts, and the larger the empire, the more of those fuckers there are. However, I must admit the late-game is thin on content. I played most of a full game (1077-1444), and the last century or so was just me passing time, waiting for the end. COMPLETED: Demon Hunter III: Revelation. Another Artifex Mundi HOG. This one has some improvements to the user interface, which is nice, but it's still the same core as every other AM HOG. At least the writing has returned to AM's usual blandness. COMPLETED (again) Dead Effect I. Even better the second time around. When I call this a mindless zombie shooter, I mean it in a good way. COMPLETED: Open Sorcery. A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure in near pure form. It's a bit minimalist, in both visuals and storytelling detail, but sometimes less really is more. The fact that it's built with Twine does drag it down a bit, but on the whole it's very much worth your time. COMPLETED: Agent Walker: Secret Journey. Another HOG from Artifex Mundi. This one is kinda notable for the fact that it's the first HOG I've played where you straight-up kill someone. Previously, the furthest AM had gone was the classic Disney villain fall off a cliff. Here, it's water puddle -> electrical cable -> dead. Unusual enough to mention, IMO. COMPLETED: OneShot. An adventure game that's a bit meta about being a computer game. Despite some bits of excellent writing (the true ending is legitimately fantastic), the gameplay is mostly a bog standard item-hunt, and there were a few places where I was completely lost until I checked a walkthrough. I'm not sure whether to recommend this one or not.  Next up: Paradox Interactive sells a tool that lets you convert Crusader Kings II games to Europa Universalis IV. Problem is, the converter is near-useless. I'm having to manually edit just about every piece of the converter's output. For just one example of how broken this thing is: did you know that after Constantinople and Rome, the third-most important city in all Europe is Umeå? For those of you who don't know where that is, it's in far north Sweden. The converter decided for some reason that Umeå is richer and more populated than London, Paris, Milan, Vienna... EightDeer fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Apr 8, 2018 |
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2018 20:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 06:29 |
|
|
Beat - Resident Evil 5: I am not a fan of the Resident Evil series. I do not like that I can't shoot while I'm moving. I do not like the over-the-shoulder perspective. I do not like QTEs. I do not like the stupid story. And I most certainly do not like "zombies" and jump scares. I played this game because it was my brother's turn to pick the co-op game we were playing. He loves RE and wanted to take me through this experience. He's beaten RE5 at least 20 times, so he basically played the game while I followed along trying not to die too frequently. The fact that it's a decade old did not make things better. I get to pick the next game we play, but I think he's going to choose RE6 after that to spite me.
Good-Natured Filth fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Apr 9, 2018 |
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2018 03:51
|
|