Games you are currently playing - Part 7

[x Tame Impala]

It’s hard for me to play these classic games because I can’t get over the huge drop off in quality of life or movement we’ve gotten over the last 20+ years.

It’s why I think Halo: Combat Evolved is one of the best games made. I can still play it today with little to no gripes and it came out 23 years ago

 

[pistolpete11]

Looking forward to some games on my list going on sale because I'm done with Elden Ring lol, I'm in the "git gud" phase and I don't have the time or patience for that. I guess I could go farm runes. Really hoping Metaphor or Cold Steel 1 goes on sale.

Played some Organ Trail yesterday, still a fun game despite it's shortcomings.

I'm replaying Elden Ring with a new character so to not go into the DLC in NG+. So far, it's been an absolute breeze, but I'm just about to head into the 'git gud' phase.

I might be overleveled or maybe I got gud from my first playthrough, but I have been messing around with my build more than I did the first time through. Paying more attention to Ashes of War, Wondrous Physick, talismans, buffs, etc. I'm not over here doing math or anything, but I think it makes a huge difference. I guess we'll see as I head into the late game.

 

[Mikeaveli]

Started Majora's Mask for the first time. Two dungeons in, I might quit. The time limit stresses me, redoing things because I had to reset the cycle is not fun. Especially with the (in 2024) wanky controls and absolutely poor framerate (yeah I know about 2Ship2Harkinian but I wanted to play it on the Switch). The atmosphere is top notch though, first two dungeons were ok but nothing ground breaking.

Thats a shame, I was replaying it a while back on PC using Zelda64Recompiled and it holds up well imo. Not sure if it's still in my all time top 5 but it's an outstanding game.

 

[Unholy Diver]

Started Astro Bot, very enjoyable so far

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Started Majora's Mask for the first time. Two dungeons in, I might quit. The time limit stresses me, redoing things because I had to reset the cycle is not fun. Especially with the (in 2024) wanky controls and absolutely poor framerate (yeah I know about 2Ship2Harkinian but I wanted to play it on the Switch). The atmosphere is top notch though, first two dungeons were ok but nothing ground breaking.

You do know how to slow down time, right?

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I got Crysis Remastered earlier this year because it was on sale for $4. Figured I'd give it a shot since I only played the original briefly years ago.

Maxed out everything with my 4090 and it looks great. I did run into an open area that still dropped my frame rate with a really powerful computer too lol

I'll see how it handles, I remember the original was really interesting to experiment with the powers to basically play as a super human in an FPS. I may have to drop some of these settings too which is sad for having the best GPU on the market and playing a 3 year old remaster...

 

[Oogie Boogie]

Started a playthrough of a game called Chernobylite. Have not really got much into it yet, but it seemed interesting.

 

[Osprey]

I got Crysis Remastered earlier this year because it was on sale for $4. Figured I'd give it a shot since I only played the original briefly years ago.

Maxed out everything with my 4090 and it looks great. I did run into an open area that still dropped my frame rate with a really powerful computer too lol

I'll see how it handles, I remember the original was really interesting to experiment with the powers to basically play as a super human in an FPS. I may have to drop some of these settings too which is sad for having the best GPU on the market and playing a 3 year old remaster...

Crysis, bringing computers to their knees since 2007.

You might try this fix from PCGamingWiki:

Poor ray tracing performance on RTX GPUs • Link​

The game might not automatically detect an RTX card due to a bug and might thus not utilize RT cores to accelerate ray tracing, resulting in impaired performance when ray tracing is enabled.[29]

1. Create autoexec.cfg file in the installation folder and open it with a text editor.
2. Add lines con_restricted=0 (if not existing) and ti_UseApiBackedRaytracing=1.

If that doesn't help, it could just be the game. Older games often aren't very multithreaded and are easily CPU bottlenecked, so turning down graphical settings may not help much. Even though it's a remaster, it's apparently based on the console version for the PS3/X360, so it may still be limited in its multithreadedness and not very optimized for PCs, in general.

 

[Soedy]

Thats a shame, I was replaying it a while back on PC using Zelda64Recompiled and it holds up well imo. Not sure if it's still in my all time top 5 but it's an outstanding game.

Yeah I think if you grew up with it and played it at the time you appreciate it more. I have a lot of old games that I love and replay despite their flaws, but my friends, who never played them as a kid can't get into it.

You do know how to slow down time, right?

Yes, I know. It's the fact I still can run out of time and need to backtrack for certain quests that i.e. are building up on each other. I'd like to do it in my order.

Anyway, I continued a little bit more last night and likely will beat it. The atmosphere is just too good to not atleast try to finish the story. I just won't do any side stuff, despite

Spoiler

I managed to get the new sword by doing the Goron race and the stone mask which really helped finding the Zora eggs

And it's the last 3D Zelda I need to beat.

 

[Jovavic]

Well, a game on my list finally went on sale, not one of the ones I was hoping for (Metaphor or Cold Steel 1), but at only four dollars I decided to get Cloudpunk and, despite the stupid name, it's pretty good. It's a story driven game, you drive around in a 3d city like The Fifth Element and make deliverys, doesn't take long for things to kick up a notch. The driving is fine, i guess it's more like flying, it could be way worse. The walking sections are there to move the story, there's no action or fighting, just picking up random stuff that completes side quests on your way to the delivery. The voice work is great and the dialog is really good with some funny characters. Definitely worth the four dollars, probably not the 25 it normally is.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Crysis, bringing computers to their knees since 2007.

You might try this fix from PCGamingWiki:

If that doesn't help, it could just be the game. Older games often aren't very multithreaded and are easily CPU bottlenecked, so turning down graphical settings may not help much. Even though it's a remaster, it's apparently based on the console version for the PS3/X360, so it may still be limited in its multithreadedness and not very optimized for PCs, in general.

I tried all those and nothing could work. In the second mission, you run down a long road by the coast line where the draw distance gets pretty big. With a 4090, I was averaging 40fps on that run. Absolutely no reason. That's the first time my FPS counter for anything has dropped below 60 at any given moment for anything on this PC.

I was reading the negative reviews about the game, apparently the "Remastered" version is actually the version that was ported to PS3/360 that was dumbed down and then they ported that back to PC and "remastered" it. How does that make any sense? I'm not even surprised the game runs terribly if that's the approach they take.

 

[Soedy]

Thats a shame, I was replaying it a while back on PC using Zelda64Recompiled and it holds up well imo. Not sure if it's still in my all time top 5 but it's an outstanding game.

You do know how to slow down time, right?

So I finished it yesterday. Everytime I got frustrated and said "that's it, I am done", it took me an hour before I had this "Ok, one more try" itch. I finished the game with 7 hearts (so basically no additional from heart containers) as I did not do any sidequests beside these necessary to complete the game. I used a guide for a few things because as said before, exploration is not very encouraging in this game in 2024. That's not a knock on the game as I would have had a lot of fun back in the day with it.

Did all the dungeons without a guide.

That was fun. I also had a lot of spare time after completing the final dungeon. End boss was ok. Soundtrack might be my favorite in the series. Definetly happy I continued playing. Finished all 3D Zelda games finally.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

So I finished it yesterday. Everytime I got frustrated and said "that's it, I am done", it took me an hour before I had this "Ok, one more try" itch. I finished the game with 7 hearts (so basically no additional from heart containers) as I did not do any sidequests beside these necessary to complete the game. I used a guide for a few things because as said before, exploration is not very encouraging in this game in 2024. That's not a knock on the game as I would have had a lot of fun back in the day with it.

Did all the dungeons without a guide.

That was fun. I also had a lot of spare time after completing the final dungeon. End boss was ok. Soundtrack might be my favorite in the series. Definetly happy I continued playing. Finished all 3D Zelda games finally.

I know what you mean, it takes a bit longer for this game to click, I remember feeling rushed my first time too.

I would highly recommend the side quests though, probably the most enjoyable of any game I've played.

 

[Jovavic]

Picked up Persona 3 Reload as it's half off currently and man, it's like eating a comfort food dish. I love the voice acting in this game, especially Junpei, adds so much to the character.

 

[Osprey]

How do people consider Far Cry 1 a good game? The enemies literally see you through walls from across the map. If I didn't buy it from the UPLAY store Id think I was playing some type of glitched anti-piracy honeypot version the devs uploaded to a torrent site

That's one example. Though I don't agree that that's normal (I mean think about how far that person would be in real life, how would they know to shoot me on site?) I can show others where enemies literally detect you through walls and know exactly where you are. It gets really ridiculous.

I re-visited the original Far Cry this afternoon and in looking up mods and fixes for it, I was reminded of this complaint that you had 3 years ago about the enemy AI seeing you through walls. I learned that it happens due to a bug in the game's last patch (v1.4). You'll have it even if you buy the game today on Steam (and, probably, UPlay). It likely explains why you had the problem and many others, including me, didn't, because we played versions of the game before the bug was introduced. It's possible to fix it in modern digital versions with mods like this. You're probably done with the game, but I thought that I'd share that because it was interesting to me to learn that your issue was a bug, after all.

 

[Osprey]

Farming Simulator 25 came out yesterday and already has a peak Steam player count of 126K, compared to 89K for the new Dragon Age game. It's nice to see that gamers who were told to touch grass actually took the suggestion to heart.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Well, a game on my list finally went on sale, not one of the ones I was hoping for (Metaphor or Cold Steel 1)

Trails games seem to go on sale about once every 3-4 months or so and they all go on sale at the same time. Should be due for another one soon I'd reckon, also something I watch out for lol. They never have massive discounts though, I usually see 33% off, possibly 50% on the oldest ones. Falcom doesn't do bargain bin stuff like Capcom/Ubisoft where they drop to $5-10 eventually, they know fans are dedicated enough to pay up to get the full story.

I've played through CS1 and 95% of CS2. At the very end of CS2 in the epilogue there started to be clear references to the past series set in Crossbell, so I stopped. Decided I might want to play through those two games (starting with Trails from Zero) to better appreciate the CS2 finale. Kinda waiting for a sale on those at this point.

I did go back at one point and play the PSP version of Trails in the Sky on an emulator, but stopped after about 10-15 hours. It was just pretty slow moving and the commitment to play the three Sky games first was pretty overwhelming. Now that there's a remake announced for the Switch I'll probably go with that when it's released.

Really, really loved Cold Steel 1 and 2 and in theory I'd love to play them all to get the whole universe experience but it's just so much. I still might just fold and continue with Cold Steel 3 at some point depending on how I'm feeling.

I have a similar experience with Yakuza. Started with Yakuza 0 and loved it, played through Kiwami 1 and 2. Now I'm going through Yakuza 3 and it's just...okay. But I have 4/5 too and feel obligated to play them though part of me wishes I could just go to the more modern ones. With both series', wish I had gotten into them sooner.

 

[Jovavic]

Trails games seem to go on sale about once every 3-4 months or so and they all go on sale at the same time. Should be due for another one soon I'd reckon, also something I watch out for lol. They never have massive discounts though, I usually see 33% off, possibly 50% on the oldest ones. Falcom doesn't do bargain bin stuff like Capcom/Ubisoft where they drop to $5-10 eventually, they know fans are dedicated enough to pay up to get the full story.

I've played through CS1 and 95% of CS2. At the very end of CS2 in the epilogue there started to be clear references to the past series set in Crossbell, so I stopped. Decided I might want to play through those two games (starting with Trails from Zero) to better appreciate the CS2 finale. Kinda waiting for a sale on those at this point.

I did go back at one point and play the PSP version of Trails in the Sky on an emulator, but stopped after about 10-15 hours. It was just pretty slow moving and the commitment to play the three Sky games first was pretty overwhelming. Now that there's a remake announced for the Switch I'll probably go with that when it's released.

Really, really loved Cold Steel 1 and 2 and in theory I'd love to play them all to get the whole universe experience but it's just so much. I still might just fold and continue with Cold Steel 3 at some point depending on how I'm feeling.

I have a similar experience with Yakuza. Started with Yakuza 0 and loved it, played through Kiwami 1 and 2. Now I'm going through Yakuza 3 and it's just...okay. But I have 4/5 too and feel obligated to play them though part of me wishes I could just go to the more modern ones. With both series', wish I had gotten into them sooner.

I started with the Crossbell games as they were on sale and a few hours into the first characters from the Sky game started to pop up and through the dialogue i got the feeling I should know these people so I started researching the ways to play the Sky games, settling on firing up an old laptop and playing them on Steam. The more I thought about it, the more didn't want to spend 100+ hours playing through them, so i found a comprehensive YouTube series that goes into the stories and characters of that arc (it's seven hours long!). So after watching that I went back to the Crossbell games and those interactions made alot more sense.

I had the same experience with Yakuza, I started on Like a Dragon and then went back and played most of the series (I skipped 4 and 5)

 

[Voodoo Child]

Anyone else playing Dragon Quest 3: HD2D?

A fun, simple old school jaunt. Simple story but who plays DQ for story and a simple battle system but it's super comfy and looks great.

Do be sure to turn battle speed to the max before you dig in, this game rivals FFIX in both random battle frequency and random battle slowness. And since it's a DQ game, resources and coin are going to be very hard to come by for about the first half so you'll be doing a lot of random battles.

 

[PeteWorrell]

I bought the game but i haven't started it. I am too busy playing another fantastic remake of an older game in Romancing SaGa2: Revenge of the Seven.

I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the genre that wants a game more focused on gameplay instead of too many cutscenes. They did a great job introducing many QoL changes and cutting down on obtuse mechanics while keeping to the spirit of the original.

 

[Unholy Diver]

Started Evil West on game pass yesterday, played thru the first 4 areas or so and it's pretty fun, not the deepest game ever but seems like it should be worth my time

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I enjoyed Evil West, it was a really unique world and the combat was pretty satisfying mixing melee and ranged.

I tried playing Need for Speed Most Wanted. I miss what happened to arcade racing games. I don't know if there has been a good one in the past decade. I miss the fun racers where you never really had to hit the brakes and had unique things like Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2, Split/Second, or Motorstorm. Such a shame nobody makes games like that anymore.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Yeah i been playing Dragon Quest 3 as well. I'm about 8 hours in and got to the pyramid. Dude outside the desert oasis town said i need to go into town to learn about what makes the pyramid ticks. Not really sure what it means since i talked to people and don't have much to go off of.

Party wise i usually like to screw around with classes in pretty much every JRPG to see what i dig and my quick summary;

Hero - basically your standard jack of all trades type thing. Can dabble in magic, raw damage, healing, etc. Have a little bit of experience with this thanks to the Yakuza RPGs. Which in hindsight, makes total sense now since the main protag in that game is obsessed with Dragon Quest and runs the exact type of kit.

Mage/Warrior/Priest. Basically DQ flavored versions of classes seen in other JRPGs
Mage = black mage. Warrior = Knight. Priest = White Mage

Merchant - class based on...getting extra items/gold i guess? Seems kinda okay early game since they get attacks that hit all enemies but the "i found extra gold!" passive doesn't proc after every fight. Started with this as one of my party then dumped it since it doesn't really do much to fix the gold scarcity problem early.

- Gadabout - seems like a RNG/gambler type class? You have no control over what it does and it gains more abilities/tricks as it levels up. Can apparently absolutely rip enemies with the right setup but meh.

- Martial Artist - The one i didn't use but i'm pretty sure this is just DQ's answer to the Monk from Final Fantasy 1-6. Same idea of blistering speed, high crit rate but having the defense of wet toilet paper. Really see the Toriyama influence on this character's design look wise.

- Monster Wrangler - New(ish) class that they pulled from i believe DQ8 to go along with the monster arena sidequest added to this, also from dragon quest 8 from what i recall reading. Early returns on this class seem f***ing busted. Essentially this class picks up new skills depending on how many monsters you recruit on top of having an ability that lets you detect said monsters for recruiting in the overworld/towns to make your job earlier. Only at level 10 but i already have access to attacks that can hit multiple enemies regardless of grouping, multiple healing abilities on top of all the helpful shit in the overworld. And that's only with i think, like 6 of the god knows how many monsters out there waiting to be found and recruited.

Team going forward is Hero/Warrior/Mage/Wrangler. Going to try and get away without a Priest for now since i have a good amount of healing between my hero and wrangler. fun game so far.

 

[Voodoo Child]

^^

My last event was Skyfall Tower, my main party is level 14-15.

I have the hero with the meathead personality for STR gains, but I imagine I'll switch to something more magic focused when I can change classes. I imagine it'll progress like most JRPGs where at some point the hero will end up being able to solo the game so I'm not worried.

Warrior with meathead and Mage with genius, both pivotal.

I also had the Priest but he was kind of shit; he didn't hit hard, status and resurrection magic doesn't work well at this point and if someone was dying it was always him.

I trained a Ninja, Merchant and Monster Tamer to level 10 and concur; Tamer is busted. All-enemy attacks and full party heal, insane Luck stat at the expense of low HP, it's what I'm running going forward.

 

[Osprey]

Today's launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 seemingly went well...